Overview

Gordon Brinckle (1915-2007) seemed like an ordinary mana modest and reserved husband and father living in an ordinary 1950s-era home in Middletown, Delaware. Known around town as the night projectionist at the local movie theater, it was the unusual way he spent his days that eventually brought him attention. In his free time, Brinckle meticulously constructed a miniature version of a grand movie palace in his basement. The Shalimar, as he called it, was not only fully functional (with nine authentic movie seats, a projection booth with a 16-mm projector, numerous speakers, and a working organ) but was also lushly designed and decorated with an obsessive attention todetail. Brinckle's picture palace of renown, as he referred to it, adapted various theater styles of the twentieth century, boasting a marquee that distinctly recalls the 1960s; an auditorium decorated in the semi-atmospheric style of the 1930s, bringing the outdoors in through the use of fake foliage and wildlife; and three opulent working curtains. When filmmaker and photographer Kendall Messick, who used to live across the street from the Brinckle family as a boy, became reacquaintedwith his former neighbor during a visit home in 2001, he knew he had to document the theater and its one-of-a-kind creator. In The Projectionist, Messick captures every detail of Brinckle's colorful fantasy world, including Brinckle's original artwork, architectural plans, drawings, and linoleum prints of imaginary movie theaters, ticket stubs, and usher uniform designs. An essay by curator Brooke Davis Anderson of the American Folk ArtMuseum looks at Gordon's work in the context of outsider art, and a foreword by artist, curator, and author Mark Sloandiscusses Messick's photographic work.

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9781568989334

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The ideal artist is unwilling to sacrifice his or her individuality to anything or anyone, particularly commercialism or outside control. Such artists often work in seclusion and their creations are uniquely pure. Gordon Brinckle is such an artist. [Messick's] photographs are both tender and authentic in the greatest sense, and I found myself as close to his subject as I ever could have hoped to be. Albert Maysles, documentary filmmaker (Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens)

The ideal artist is unwilling to sacrifice his or her individuality to anything or anyone, particularly commercialism or outside control. Such artists often work in seclusion and their creations are uniquely pure. Gordon Brinckle is such an artist. [Messick's] photographs are both tender and authentic in the greatest sense, and I found myself as close to his subject as I ever could have hoped to be. Albert Maysles, documentary filmmaker (<em>Gimme Shelter</em>, <em>Grey Gardens</em>)

Author Information

Kendall Messick is a photographer and filmmaker. His documentary films have been featured in numerous film festivals. His photographs reside in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian Institution. Brooke Davis Anderson is the founding director and curator of the Contemporary Center at the American Folk Art Museum, New York. Anderson's memorable projects at the Museum have included countless exhibitions devoted to the self-taught artist Henry Darger, as well as Obsessive Drawing, Dargerism: Contemporary Artists and Henry Darger and Approaching Abstraction. In 2007-2008 she organized the exhibition, Martin Ramirez, which was accompanied by a publication and toured the United States receiving wide acclaim. She has written and lectured extensively on American art, in particular in African American art and the work of contemporary self-taught artists and has contributed to numerous catalogues and monographs, including Henry Darger, New York (Prestel, 2009) and Martin Ramirez: The Last Works (Pomegranate, 2008).

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