Do people living with mental health conditions find relief in making art — and how does society avoid mistaking creativity for illness?
Akron audiences can wrestle with both questions this fall through the work of the late Alfred McMoore, an Akron artist diagnosed with schizophrenia. His first solo museum exhibition, “Alfred McMoore: All This Luck in My Head,” opens Sept. 20 through Feb. 15 at the Akron Art Museum.
As a bonus: On the eve of the exhibition opening, Akron filmmaker Todd V will present “Outside In: The Life and Art of Alfred McMoore,” a documentary he created in 2010, at the art museum’s Karl and Bertl Arnstein Galleries. The opening event is free for members and $20 for non-members. [To watch the film’s trailer, click here.]
An outsider’s perspective on art
McMoore lived in Akron his entire life.
He spent 13 years in state hospitals before transitioning to independent living, supported by Community Support Services.
A prolific artist with chronic mental health challenges, McMoore would curl up on the floor and use pencils to draw murals on scrolls of paper — five feet tall and 25 feet long. He often attended funerals at Stewart & Calhoun Funeral Home, even if he didn’t know the person who had died. Many of his murals featured funeral scenes.
Because he wasn’t formally trained in art, McMoore’s nontraditional murals were considered “outsider” art. Yet they caught the attention of Chuck Auerbach, an Akron antiques dealer and art collector, and his friend, Akron Beacon Journal reporter Jim Carney. The trio developed a friendship, with Auerbach and Carney supporting McMoore’s artistic endeavors, providing him with art supplies and other essentials.
McMoore regularly left them voicemail messages:
“This is Alfred McMoore. Your black key is taking too long.”
He often used that saying to describe something that was off-center or not quite right.
In 2001, Auerbach and Carney’s sons — Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney — named their rock band after McMoore’s phrase.
Over the years, McMoore created dozens of murals. In 1995, Auerbach donated one of the scrolls to the Akron Art Museum. Because of its sheer size, it was never displayed.
Until now. This month’s exhibition will include some of McMoore’s rarely-seen drawings.
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Gone but his art isn’t forgotten
McMoore died in 2009 at the age of 59.
Several hundred people attended his funeral held, not surprisingly, at Stewart & Calhoun. About a year later, Chuck Auerbach approached local artist and filmmaker Todd V to feature McMoore and his artwork on a segment of V’s Time Warner NEON Network show, “ArtsQuest.”
“Once we sat and talked, I was like, I’d love to just do a whole documentary on this,” V said. “As you see in the film, he had a really strong impact on a lot of people.
“I think he was very much misunderstood. His art had a very strong fixation on his own mortality and death, and also injustices that he was experiencing throughout the city.”
Using footage filmed by McMoore’s case workers and interviewing the people who knew him, V crafted the documentary.
“He died right about the time Chuck was talking to me about the film. I never personally had a chance to meet him,” V said. “I know him only through the reports of other people.”
V said to honor their family friend, The Black Keys showed the film in 2011 as an “opening act” to their concert at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas.
Sharing a legacy
Today, V works as a video producer at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. When organizers at the Akron Art Museum approached him about screening his film during the upcoming exhibition of McMoore’s work, V said he was caught off-guard.
“They saw the trailer and said, ‘What would it take for us to show it?’ and I’m like, ‘I guess you just ask me,’” he said. “I was happy it was getting a second life. This is interesting to other people so it’s very validating.”
V hopes people will look thoughtfully at McMoore’s artwork, which he describes as “raw” and “simple, like old Folk Art.” He said Akron Art Museum visitors will recognize the local people and places featured on the mural like a large-scale journal.
Said V: “It’s really engaging once you take the time to walk down the path with him.”