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OUTTERBRIDGE
His Art, His People
                By Greg Pitts

JOHN OUTTERBRIDGE could have chosen the paths of a singer or musician as well as visual artist.  There are many artistic people in his family in his hometown of Greenville, N.C., where he was born on March 12, 1933. These included his father, John Ivory Outterbridge, who never worked for "the man" but created his own jobs, and his mother, who wrote prolifically and drew sketches.  Of his four brothers, all became artists and several cousins became musicians.
   As a child Outterbridge had a stronger feeling for music than he did for the visual arts but neglected to study music seriously because "the dudes put you down all the time."
   Some of his first paintings, which began as far back as he can remember, were watercolors done on old window shades.  These were brought to the attention of Madge Allen, a prominent Indian craftsperson who became his first teacher.  By the ninth grade he had gained such proficiency in the medium that he won first place in a countrywide art competition.

   Outterbridge toyed with the idea of not putting a frame around or signing his work, both peculiarly Western concepts.

   In the military, almost every situation turned to Outterbridge's advantage.  While an Army corporal in Germany in 1953, he muffed an inspection when a stack of watercolors fell from his locker.  But the inspecting officer was an art lover who admired his work and offered the artist an opportunity to set up a studio at the fort.  There Outterbridge completed numerous murals for the officer's clubs and for American high schools throughout Germany.  Later, by teaching English to a German used-car salesman, he acquired a car and the mobility to roam the German countryside, producing large volumes of work.
   Discharged in 1956,Outterbridge movd to Chicago to pursue further studies at the American Art Academy.  Along with several other artists, he opened a co-op art gallery on the city's South Side at 79th and Cottage

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"One thing I noticed in my relationship with my daughter is that dolls are real people," says Outterbridge.

to provide exhibition space for artists in the community.
   Still, his affinity for musicianship remained with him.  He became part of a vocal group called Opus de Four (a quartet), singing baritone.  ("We had a style something like the Four Freshmen, only funkier.")  While supplying the supporting bill at Robert's Show  Lounge to singer Johnny Hartman, the legendary musician-composer Sun Ra saw the group.
   Outterbridge recalls: "He was with us one afternoon and had us singing like bells.  Sunny wanted to manage and write for the group.  I think we could have gone a long way with him."
   But Outterbridge again chose to go with art.
   In 1963, he moved from Chicago to the West Coast, where he found employment as a studio painter, a job he credits most for teaching him color theory.

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   He was hired by the Pasadena Museum of Contemporary Art (now the Norton Simon Museum of Art) from 1967 to 1970 as an instructor in painting and sculpture as well as to a post in the installations department.  Almost concurrently he held a teaching job at Cal State Dominguez Hills as a lecturer in Afro-American Art History, from 1968 to 1971.  In 1969 he had joined the staff of the Communicative Arts Academy in Compton, California, where once again his musical inclinations surfaced, earning him a seat in the Academy band as a flutist.  In Nov., 1975, Outterbridge left the Academy to become director of the Watts Tower Art Center, where he now serves.
   Prior to his arrival in Los Angeles, Outterbridge was known as a painter.  Today, many may think of him primarily as a sculptor.  He began sculpture while in Chicago, but never exhibited any of his work.  His earliest sculptures were assemblages whose basic materials were chromed metal with found and fabricated objects.
    A very significant work from the period was a chrome truck.  This piece paid homage to his father, who often hauled things in his own truck.  "I refused to call it a piece of sculpture," said Outterbridge, "simply because I knew if my father had had his way he would have been a musician, so I called it 'Song for My Father.'"
   In what he termed his "Rag Man Series," Outterbridge toyed with the idea of not putting a frame around or signing his work, both peculiarly Western concepts.  "The Rag Man Series' gave me an opportunity to paint on canvas (rag) and work with form at the same time," he says.  The only known antecedents in this approach can be traced back to Africa.  The rag has sculptural implications in certain traditional African cultures.  The cloth or materials are sewn and/ or wrapped in sections around a human form. Each form, color and shape by itself or com-

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