James Hampton Had No Formal Art Training and Is Considered to Be a Selftaught Artist

This lecture is function of the Divine Disorder Briefing held February 24-26, 2015.

"James Hampton's Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly" past Helen Ingalls

Aisle view of Hampton's garage.

Helen Ingalls: I want to beginning this talk with a little bit of a personal note. In almost 1971-72, my mother, Mikee Ingalls dragged a very disaffected teenager to the Montgomery Alabama Museum of Art telling me that there was something I actually had to see and I said, "Oh, yeah, I don't want to go. I'm non going." She persisted and we went and it was James Hampton's Throne. In a curious quirk of life and fate, when I began working at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1988, this came under my care every bit an object conservator. Who knew? This afternoon, I'm going to talk to you about the James Hampton Throne. I'll be discussing the discovery of the Throne, a niggling bit nigh James Hampton'due south biography, the materials that the Throne is fabricated of, aluminum foil manufacture, the Throne conditions and deterioration, conservation and maintenance and a conclusion.

In 1964, James Hampton, a reclusive worker at the Full general Services Administration in Washington, died of stomach cancer. His rented garage lay unopened until the landlord decided to rent it out and opened it to observe a trove of glittering silvery objects. Reluctant to dispose of the strange collection, the landlord contacted museums, local newspapers and even the New York Times.
Eventually, the National Drove of Fine Arts, now the Smithsonian American Art Museum, agreed to pay the by due rental fees for the garage and acquired in 1970 the indescribably horde afterward known to the world as the Throne of the Third Sky Nations' Millennium Full general Associates or only the Hampton Throne. The silvery gleam was caused, of grade, by reflections from the aluminum foil covering almost every surface. It'southward similar had never been seen.

Acting museum director, Harry Lowe, afterward said they didn't know what information technology was or what to call it merely they knew it was something special. Indeed, it was an ambitious scheme to create an ecclesiastical environment to serve every bit a staging for the second coming of Christ every bit foretold in the Revelations volume of The Bible. Here are some examples of Hampton's piece of work, a schematic plan at the upper left of the slide shows the location of the items.

Crown

Here you have what nosotros generally refer to as just the pocket-size items. There are a lot of plaques mayhap fifteen or 20 plaques. In that location are well-nigh 10 crowns. The medium-sized objects, so called, a star, an altar tabular array plaque holder and then you tin can take a plaque of the solar day. Those come up in and out are held past something that looks suspiciously like a Kleenex box. Then in that location are the larger elements. I was really struck during today'southward lectures about the frequency of winged figures and angels. Hampton used a lot of that type of imagery in his piece of work every bit you lot'll see. Here, you have a butterfly stand and a middle pulpit. Since it was an ecclesiastical infinite, obviously there has to be somewhere for the government minister to stand and deliver the sermon. This was the big key pulpit.

Extensive research was conducted was conducted on the Throne by Lynda Hartigan, who worked as an intern, a registrar and a curator at the National Collection of Fine Arts and the Smithsonian American Fine art Museum and we're indebted to her for the background data that she unearthed and provided on Hampton. The creative person's early life by all accounts was unremarkable. He was built-in in Elloree, S Carolina in 1909. He moved to Washington, DC in 1931 at the age of 22. I think that must've been a very disrupted modify for a land boy and indeed in 1931, he had his get-go vision. He had a series of visions and he recorded them on cardboard tags such as the one you see on the right side of the screen. This one hung from one of the Throne's large stands named for the prophet Moses.

Later his inflow in Washington, he did a series of menial jobs including being a brusque order cook at a local eatery, but he was inducted into an ground forces air squadron during Globe State of war II and he had a risk to travel quite a fleck. He went to Texas, Seattle, Saipan, Honolulu and Guam. I've often wondered if those sort of Asiatic sites allowed him to see some of the glittery works of fine art made at particularly in places like Guam and Hong Kong. Information technology must've been quite exotic for him.

His but dated sculpture and perhaps the first of the entire ensemble is labelled 'Made on Guam' Apr 1945 and it's almost two anxiety by one pes maybe. He was honorably discharged from the army in 1945, returned to DC after the state of war and plant work as a nighttime janitor at the Full general Services Administration. In 1950, he rented a garage in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington and created his life'south piece of work there from 1950 to 1964.

Center Pulpit.

Anecdotal testify suggests that later on his late shift, the artist combed the street for discarded materials on the way to his garage studio. There, he would proceed working into the night on his project. According to those who knew him, he spoke of 1 day setting up a storefront ministry, no doubt incorporating his paw-fabricated objects into a spiritual environs to serve God.

Here's a list of the creative person's basic construction materials. He would buy article of furniture at a used furniture store on 14th Street in Washington. Sometimes he would, for example, buy a circular table and cut it in half then he would have 2 semicircular tables. He would buy dressers and pull the drawers out, invert them and in that way become more than meridian for depression pieces. Iron casters, he probably got from function chairs at the GSA. Poster board, insulation lath, cellulose acetate overlay picture show, desk blotter paper, Kraft structure paper, nails, brads, tacks, pins.

These are very apprehensive materials and he probably got just about all of them free. Here'southward an example of a re-purposed chair that served equally the Throne. It'southward really hard to see in the pictures of the overall Throne because in that location's so many pieces around information technology, just indeed this is normally shown at the back between the 2 tall butterfly stands. This is being worked on, treated past two pre-program volunteers. Not quite sure where he got that cushion. I guess it'southward a couch cushion or something.

In add-on to the basic materials that I just talked about, he added a lot of embellishments, things like inks and paints, dye-based marking, pen, pencil, light bulbs covered with foil, drinking glass jars and vases covered with foil, electrical conduit covered with foil for used as rounded beading on the obviously piece of furniture to wearing apparel it up. Did I say foil? Aluminum foil. This is a picture of the conduit, electrical conduit there. Even a little flake of twine there.

He was obviously trying to dress upwardly the direct edge and so he probably first used a twine and then that didn't give it the roundness that he wanted so he used the conduit. This is the kind of jar that I believe jams and jellies were sold in and you could proceed the jar. That's a Blueish Bird ane and at that place'south some other bird featured on those jars. The sources of Hampton'southward decorative foils varied widely. Some came into use pristine, some following use as display materials in liquor stores or floral shops or packaging for cigarettes or food stuffs. Whether Hampton's compulsion for foils would take caused him to select food wrappings from the GSA function trash where he worked is believable but not documented. Merely if so, acidic food stuffs or fatty residues could've made their way into the works causing damage afterward on.

According to Alcoa Aluminum Company publication from 1953, "In general, food products are not corrosive to aluminum, merely many hygroscopic products packaged in thin foil may cause some reaction particularly if the product contains salt or salt and some mild organic acid in the case of cheese or mayonnaise. The most important and dependable sources of Hampton's raw material withal were rolls of household aluminum foil."

Here y'all see a tab. This usage is signaled by tell tale tabs remaining at the end of rolls advising the buyer that they were only six feet now, half dozen anxiety left, order now Reynolds Wrap. These warnings were incorporated by the artist into the foil wrappings and remained unseen at the back of some of the Throne elements. I sometimes picture him- I'grand sure he had unlike working phases, but I sometimes picturing him just working feverishly and just pulling out the foil rolls and not having time to even tear off the tab before he started a new 1. Clean and shiny, the household foil provided a reliable raw cloth that the artist could spontaneously model and sculpt in pursuit of his artistic vision.

Hampton's use of aluminum foil coincided with its increasing availability and affordability and packaging trends which favored the employ of aluminum. Nutrient packaging in the early 20th century shifted away from bulk to private packaging. At that place was a demand for better sanitation, better display, storage and inventory of consumer goods, better protection of product quality, positive identification of packaged foods and there was pure food and drug legislation.

James Hampton with the Throne.

The first industries to actually take reward of the employ of aluminum foil for packaging were the tobacco fancy box and greeting carte du jour industries and the confectionery industry using plain and laminated foil for chewing gum and other confections. In 1911, the Swiss company, Tobler, began packaging its chocolates in foil and then Life Savers followed conform in the Us in 1913. In 1947- I was surprised by this late date, Reynolds Wrap alloy number 79 became available to consumers, only in '47. Hampton started piece of work iii years later in 1950 and in 1980, the blend was changed to number 8111. This is less important to u.s., but apparently to connoisseurs of aluminum, this is very important. I'm just going to very quickly run yous through the production of aluminum just because information technology's and then critical to perception of this group of artifacts.

Foil production begins with billets or ingots of bulk aluminum metallic. They're rolled and re-rolled to a thin guess on cold rolls using lubrication. Foil is mostly defined by U.s. manufacturers or having thickness of between 6 mils and .25 mils or thousandths of an inch. Kitchen foil today is usually less than than ane mil thick. The rolled foil intended for industrial applications is work hardened, simply the household products is heated to amalgamate it prior to final inspection.

This produces foil in the full soft condition able to dead fold and that means stay where information technology'southward put without springing back or cracking. This annealing too burns off whatsoever oil lubricants used in the rolling procedure. The purity of almost packaging foil is well-nigh 99.35 to 99.55 percentage aluminum with infinitesimal parts of other elements such as silicon and iron to strengthen and harden the aluminum.
This very high level of purity suggests that aluminum foil deterioration is due primarily not to the foil itself but to the laminates, adhesives and coatings used in the production of varied consumer products as well as the conditions of its usage. Paper laminates are used in the industry to reinforce thin foils assuasive the use of less metal thereby reducing costs while maintaining wet and permeability imparted by even the thinnest metal films. The foil may be laminated to a carrier or backing sail with all kinds of adhesives. The actual paper and foil laminating adhesives for Hampton's foils are unknown, only one newspaper backing did test positive for polyvinyl acetate resin, mayhap originally intended for rut sealing applications.

Foils used in the fabrication of the Hampton Throne appear to be of iv general types: out of the box Reynolds household foil used and new, textured foils which were mainly argent colored as seen in the image on the right, silver foil and paper laminates and paper laminated foils with golden toned coatings. The bulk of the Throne has a silvery coloration, only in that location are some really strategically placed gold-toned foils that really enhanced the depth and the sense of richness of the entire ensemble. You tin encounter the textured roll there. I tin't aid just think that looks a lot like the Washington Monument, that textured piece there. Thin foils whose carrier or laminate deteriorates have little physical supports. I'grand sure we've all experienced this from trying to tear into some Christmas processed and become vulnerable to mechanical clothing, tearing and loss such as that seen in oft handled areas of the Throne.

The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly ca. 1950-1964.

See, that'due south the paper backing and the foil's been torn away or has come away. Coatings are practical to apparently or laminated foil products to provide boosted gloss to the surface or as in Hampton'south gold foils to alter the colour of the aluminum metallic for decorative purposes. Analysis of gold foil samples from the Throne reveal that cellulose nitrate was the toned coating used in these iii combined spectra of cellulose nitrate. The Throne foil sample's in red, a degraded known sample of cellulose nitrate is in purple. Those lines are pretty close. An undegraded but notwithstanding nitrocellulose standard is seen in the aqua colored spectrum. It'southward the same fabric, merely it's non former. The cause of deterioration, Hampton's artistic methods didn't utilize traditional carpentry techniques. In most cases, his structural attachments were fabricated with insubstantial items such as thick paper-thin straps, tinned iron tabs from adhesive tape rolls or canned goods and thin atomic number 26 brads, which sometimes did not penetrate all the intended layers.

An early on inventory of the Throne component materials in American Arts Conservation files from July 1974 listed no screws used by the artist to assistance in structural stability. A few screws were added by museum staff in 1974 to secure the taller pieces to withstand travel and loan. The structural material Hampton most relied upon however is hide gum found on 4 detached Throne samples and identified by FTIR analysis by comparison with the spectrum of a known sample of degraded hide glue. He may accept discovered the utility of this fabric in word with the used furniture purveyors he'south known to have frequented in the used furniture district. This fabric would've been inexpensive and readily available in bulk to exist mixed up in individual batches as needed. The strength of this adhesive served Hampton well to some degree securing layered papers and foils to wooden substrates and to other decorative layers.

Notwithstanding, its contractile forces too worked to the creative person'southward disadvantage considering glue applied to newspaper backed foils crusade the shiny surfaces to shrivel and distort, resulting in a withered appearance. Balls with kerfed foil tabs are torn abroad here. Hampton's method for creating- I know this is a complicated image and it'south probably a piffling hard for you to decipher, only information technology'southward basically a cross slice there covered with a top layer of silvery foil. Hampton would was up the foil balls and smash them downwards into his thumb to create a hemisphere and he would put them on surfaces. He would cover that rounded surface with aureate foil. As you know, it'south hard to get a flat sheet to conform to a rounded canvas. He would kerf the edges and glue them down. He must've used hide glue to stick them down and they just shriveled up and became very brittle and tore off. This is only ane example of how the use of hide glue caused some loss. This tendency to shrinkage would accept been exacerbated by the extremes of temperature and humidity endemic to the artist's workspace. In addition, aluminum's corrosion resistant in the presence of neutral glues, but acrid or alkaline metal glues can cause some pitting. Moreover, a viscous black fabric referred to by an early conservator equally tar, as well as several dark-brown-toned business firm paints acquired baloney and staining of some paper elements and attracted dirt.

This is a tarry substance. You lot see a lot of staining on the newspaper. Here's some house paint with some sand embedded in it. It was just, in full general, kind of difficult material to work with. These experimental materials would sometimes necessitate redoing by covering with foil or with additional foil covered cardboard layers. This is especially evident in some of the small early plaques.
Here'southward one of the plaques. Again, we have this tarry substance here around the border. This is an archival photo. It's a little hard to see the detail, but these lilliputian aluminum tabs have been degraded either by hide glue or by the tar that they sit in. Hampton said, "No problem." He simply super imposed another layer. You can actually probably see a picayune residue tab forms there that were covered over when he merely made an addition.

It'south suspected that these materials were used early on in the artist'due south process and abandoned. Hampton made continual adjustments to find workable methods and materials similar all of the artists that we've been discussing today. He fabricated changes based on years long feel with the inherent vice of his chosen materials. I don't need to tell anybody in this room that the storage surroundings of these big installations is never very skilful.

Foil delamination and damage from treatment.

The unheated garage Hampton rented at 7th Street in Washington between M and N Street shown in this motion picture featuring the artist was partially furnished, lit with raw light bulbs. I think you can see at that place and accessed by big carriage house double doors. Hampton died in 1964 and the National Collection of Fine Arts or SAM acquired the entire work in 1970. Components were housed for an extended time in the garage during fabrication and after the creative person's death and they would've encountered many of the agents of deterioration: unstable climate including wide extremes of temperature and relative humidity and light UV and visible.

If every bit seems likely that uninhabited building envelope was not sealed, street dust, insects, rodents and other agents of deterioration could have negatively impacted the materials of the Throne. No insect damage has been observed on the Throne elements surprisingly, just some newspaper components show significant water staining and tide lines. Use of cheap construction papers colored with fugitive dyes led to fading early on of colored elements of many Throne components. In fact, when the Throne was first acquired, at that place was some delamination of some of the layered winged figures. Some of the staff people noticed that underneath some of the layers of winged figures, in that location were these brilliant colors, there were roses and purples and greens and already at that time, these materials, not having been chosen for their immovability, had faded. Information technology was originally, every bit the artist conceived it, a much more colorful ensemble.

Afterwards discovery of the Throne'southward existence following Hampton's expiry, human factors such as handling, packing, storage, travel and display would arbitrate to stress the frail constructions further. The ensemble was beginning displayed publicly in 1971 in the National Collection of Fine Arts exhibition "Subconscious Aspects". Afterward all-encompassing structural repairs, a portion of the Throne complex, roughly 50 of 180 components, traveled packaged in cardboard boxes and crates to 8 venues. I won't listing them, but they include the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, The Whitney, Fine Arts in Boston, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. Parts have been loaned since 1982 to at least 10 museums. Major complex was last loaned to Colonial Williamsburg in 2000. It'due south been effectually the block a few times. The Throne has moved at least four times inside the museum. All that handling and shuttling effectually cannot have benefited these very fragile constructions.

The deterioration of the foil, although in general the silver colored household foils survived well, the artist appears to have been discontented with dust and dirt embedded in the interstices considering he took steps to end the alteration of the shiny surfaces by covering some with plastic overlay moving picture and some with new household foil correct out of the box. In time, equally he covered over the dulled surfaces, there were leaf details lost their crispness and complexity. Other reasons for covering the existing foils may have been corrosion stimulated by tar and paints as I've already referred to. Structural weaknesses acquired by repeated folding and manipulation during construction could return the foils vulnerable to corrosion and acidic food residues could have attacked weak areas of the foil. We did see some filiform corrosion- This is a treat for all you lot conservators out there. You can't ever have enough pictures of filiform corrosion- Appearing like mole tunnels on the surface of the metal was observed on a few silverish-colored samples.

Throne armchair during conservation treatment by pre-program volunteers Leah Brilliant and Gaby Irving in 2012.

Many of the paper laminated sheets have not held upwardly well either, some due to mechanical stresses associated with treatment while moving the rusty bicycle components. The poor environment would have played an of import role in furthering delamination, weakening the paper supports of the sparse foils and furthering their tendency to tear with pressure level. Foil with gold toned coatings peradventure fared the worst considering of sensitivity of the cellulose nitrate coatings to grit, lite and debrasion. That'south a deteriorated gilt-toned coating. Furthermore, cellulose nitrate's listed by the Aluminum Association as ane of the materials slightly corrosive to aluminum in certain solvents. Maintenance and handling of the Throne over the decade since its acquisition in 1970 has been challenging due to the sheer calibration of the installation, the almost constant display of the iconic ensemble and difficult access due to the shut packing of the elements went on brandish.

Traveling exhibitions have involved multiple campaigns of intensive treatment and lite exposure. Starting time in 1988 with the hiring of a full time objects conservator at the American Art Museum regular maintenance was begun with a programme of dusting, in depth cleaning and repair campaigns occurred periodically in 1992, 2002 and 2012. Various grit preventive concepts take been considered over fourth dimension. Dust is a actually big problem with this.

One of the concepts for preventing dust was constructing a Plexiglass barrier to protect the Throne from grit and visitor interaction, which was a practice observed in historic rooms during the 1970s and 80s. Prior to the reopening of the renovated POB, renamed the Donna Williams Center, a positive pressure system was conceived to prevent dust from entering the Throne enclosure and depositing on the foil elements, but financing did not materialize for this engineered solution. Brandish in a carpeted gallery exacerbates the common trouble of dust influx into the gallery exhibition spaces. In order to reduce light-induced deterioration, advances in museum lighting have also been considered and implemented. One of the advances that was considered was a motility detector calibrated to respond to homo presence in the Throne gallery, but a night gallery waiting to exist motion activated was accounted uninviting to visitors and was not implemented. LED lighting, Laser Emitting Diode lighting, is being utilized to augment incandescent light sources in an effort to salvage energy and reduce the demand for access to bulbs in areas with difficult admission.

In conclusion, in spite of poor quality materials, experimental methods, non-standard joinery, abiding revision past the artist, poor storage, frequent loans and long term display, the Throne has endured from its inception in a garage workshop in 1950 until the present. The creative person was a poor man and could only employ what he could scavenge or purchase 2d hand with the exception of i material. Abundantly available, loftier quality, however cheap household aluminum foil, whose inherent stability under deleterious conditions is possibly the element nearly responsible for preserving the spiritual and artistic vision of James Hampton. I encourage you to visit the Throne in Washington DC, currently on view in the American Fine art Museum First Floor Folk Art Galleries and I'd like to thank the post-obit people for their help with this paper. Give thanks you for your attention.

Abstract:
The Hampton Throne, produced betwixt 1950 and 1964, was the life's work of self-taught artist James Hampton. The eighty-piece installation appears to exist fabricated of aluminum foil, though in fact it forms only the skin covering wooden and cardboard structural elements, bought second-hand or found on the streets of Washington DC. The plain, colored, and textured foils derive from shop-bought rolls of kitchen foil merely besides from liquor store displays, processed wrappers and cigarette packs. They were secured in place by ways of crimping, pressing, gluing and nailing. The components were adorned with paint, glue, colored papers, and toned varnish coatings. Various forms of corrosion are present on the foil, and some of the paints and glues have caused severe deterioration.

Dust has been a constant in the environment of the Throne, and was problematic plenty for the artist that many of the elements were covered over once more during his lifetime to refresh dust-embedded parts of the heavenly showpiece. The installation was created in an unheated garage often opened to a dusty alleyway to provide light and air to the claustrophobic infinite. Extremes of temperature and humidity were endemic to the artist'south workspace and surely have contributed to the deterioration of the non-archival components and the sparse aluminum films.

Maintenance and treatment of the Throne over the decades since its accession in 1970 has been impeded past difficult access due to the close packing of the elements when on display, the sheer scale of the installation and the nearly constant display of the iconic ensemble. Travelling exhibitions for big portions of the Throne and long-term exposure to light have damaged the colored elements of the Throne and hastened deterioration of adhesives and coatings.

The creative person'due south use of materials, deterioration, and maintenance strategies will be discussed in this look at the conservation of a unique, powerful, and vision-driven icon of American fine art.

Speaker Biography
Helen Ingalls began her preparation in a private drinking glass and ceramics conservation studio. She caused her formal training and Advanced Document in Conservation at the Cooperstown/Buffalo Graduate Program in Art Conservation. After internships at Colonial Williamsburg and the Walters Art Museum, and a Mellon Fellowship at the National Gallery of Art, she worked for two years at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, on Pre-Columbian archaeological metals and ceramics. Helen has adept object conservation at the Smithsonian American Fine art Museum and Renwick Gallery since 1988.

Current projects include preparation of gimmicky craft objects for the Renwick Gallery Permanent Collection post-renovation re-installation in 2016, and American Folk Art sculptures for a planned gallery re-installation in 2015. She is a member of the American Constitute for Conservation (1981), INCCA-NA, ICOM, and the Washington Conservation Guild (Board member 2010-2014). She served on the Editorial Lath for the Guild's mid-atlantic directory, Conservation Resource for Art and Antiques, and contributed the chapter on Outdoor Sculpture conservation.

mooredowboy2000.blogspot.com

Source: https://ncptt.nps.gov/blog/james-hamptons-throne-of-the-third-heaven-of-the-nations-millennium-general-assembly/

Share this post