Untitled (Books Displayed Along a Wall)

James Castle (1899-1977), born deaf and mute, learned to communicate and interact with the world around him via visual and tactile means. His soot and spit drawings range from naturalistic to surreal, often documenting scenes from his life on his family’s farm. Here, Castle depicts his own drawings installed on a wall in his home. Castle’s art has been the subject of multiple major museum exhibitions, including retrospectives organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid.