BRIGHTMAN, Margaret Stanton (aka Margaret Zenie Stanton Quincy Brightman aka Mrs. Ralph Weston Brightman aka "A" Maggie)

Naive Art: An Archive of Hand-decorated Cards, Letters and Envelopes

A collection of approximately 120 large format, handmade and heavily hand-decorated postcards and letters, mostly with envelopes. Various dates from 1967-1975, all by Mrs. Brightman of Akron, Ohio to Ned Osthaus of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Curiously, despite Brightman's many names, and indications in the correspondence that she was a performing artist of some kind in her youth, we can find little about her, or Mr. Osthaus, beyond some slim evidence of their existence.The hand-illustrated correspondence displays a unique confluence of patriotic fervor, Biblical observance, political opinion, and boundless artistic energy. Many of the cards are in commemoration of holidays real (Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, Thanksgiving, Bastille Day, Passover, Columbus Day, Easter, July 4th) and obscure or imagined (Kent State Massacre Memorial Day, Mayflower Day, Law Day, Our Martyred United States of North American Mr. and Mrs. President's Day, St. Bartholomew's Massacre Day, Ten Commandments Day); others are dedicated to a theme: the Holy Grail, the Boer War, the Watergate Hearings, the Vietnam War, the Constitution, certain types of plants.The content and accompanying art are highly eccentric, very entertaining, and occasionally slightly addled. Many are patriotic or moralistic in tone. Virtually all of the cards and letters are heavily painted, as are most of the envelopes. Several of the envelopes are made from busily patterned wrapping paper, some of which are additionally embellished, some not.In a July 4th card she explains her many names: "Note: During my early public career I was known as Margaret Quincy. During my later public career I was known as Margaret Stanton. Margaret Zenie was given to me at my birth and oddly, the Negroes in the South called me 'Ladybird.' I performed a High Swan Dive for them, especially, every Saturday Night whenever I played in the South."In one card she explains her family lineage, after having read Profiles in Courage: "I was surprised to find Secretary of War Stanton still labeled 'a villain"... in fact, he is my great grandfather... [his] wife... was an Allen... and she owned almost all of New York City, which my Grandfather Alexander Stanton inherited, and lost to the Astors..."She expresses a deep interest in culture, and a recurrent and not so subtle dislike for the British, and especially the Royal Family. In a letter dated in 1974 she decries the state of literacy in the country: "It is not difficult for me to understand why you are having trouble trying to buy the book you wish to send me. For, I have long been troubled about our book stores, and libraries... about a week ago the 'To Tell the Truth' program on television had a man on their program who was from Great Britain, and who stated 'he owned the largest second hand book store in the world'. And this man stated the 'he had been buying millions upon millions of our books, classics included.' And to prove what this man had to say -- our largest second hand book store has vanished which means the British Queen Elizabeth II is plotting to reduce this nation of United States of North America to a nation of illiterates. Too, I have been discovering books missing from my own library, and books that have been replaced with important information deleted." In a St. Patrick's Day card she states: "Bless the American Irish for keeping us reminded that the Irish are always Irish -- and not British." In another card she is deeply disturbed about a rumored plan to obliterate the head of Teddy Roosevelt from Mount Rushmore.The art, done mostly with poster paint and watercolors on wrapping paper or construction paper, while displaying only a modicum of talent, does reveal an eccentric world view, and would qualifiy as completely unadulterated naive art. This archive is clearly a product of its time as it displays one individuals attempts to reconcile "old time" values with the moral and political quagmire of the Vietnam era. However, this dichotomy combined with the form itself, bright colors, and artistic energy likely inspired to some extent by the pop-art of the 1960s, make this archive not of-a-kind, but rather very much a singular artistic interpretation of an era.

[BTC #93408]