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Albert Nickerson Carbee (February 10, 1914 – October 3, 2005) was a reclusive artist from
Saco, Maine Saco is a city in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 20,381 at the 2020 census. It is home to Ferry Beach State Park, Funtown Splashtown USA, Thornton Academy, as well as General Dynamics Armament Systems (also known by ...
whose mixed media artwork merges collage, photography, diorama, and portraiture. He has been frequently identified as an
outsider artist Outsider art is art made by self-taught or supposedly naïve artists with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art worlds. In many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Often, outsider art illustrates ...
. His work is most commonly noted for enthusiastically featuring photographs and collages of
Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli doll, Bild Li ...
dolls. Carbee is the subject of the documentary film ''
Magical Universe ''Magical Universe'' is a 2013 documentary film directed by filmmaker Jeremy Workman about reclusive outsider artist Al Carbee who created elaborate dioramas and collages featuring Barbie dolls. The title of the film is taken from Carbee's own vo ...
'' (2014) by filmmaker
Jeremy Workman Jeremy Workman is an American filmmaker and editor. His documentary films frequently focus on eccentrics, outsiders, and those with extreme passions. His acclaimed films include '' Lily Topples The World'', '' The World Before Your Feet'', ''Magi ...
.


Life

Al Carbee was born in
Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...
on February 10, 1914. After studying at the Portland School of Fine and Applied Art for two years, he moved to Boston in 1937 where he attended his uncle Scott Carbee's School of Art. Soon after finishing his studies, he got a job at Sullivan's Photo Service where he worked on municipal photography as a dark-room attendant and photo-finisher. During World War II, Carbee was hired by the
Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
as a
radiographer Radiographers, also known as radiologic technologists, diagnostic radiographers and medical radiation technologists are healthcare professionals who specialize in the imaging of human anatomy for the diagnosis and treatment of pathology. Radiog ...
due to his previous experience and expertise in
photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed i ...
and
film development Photographic processing or photographic development is the chemical means by which photographic film or paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive image. Photographic processing transforms the latent image into ...
. After the war, Carbee moved to Portland where he built layouts and billboards for the Central Maine Power Company. It was around this time that he met and married his wife, Edna. A few years later they moved to
Saco, Maine Saco is a city in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 20,381 at the 2020 census. It is home to Ferry Beach State Park, Funtown Splashtown USA, Thornton Academy, as well as General Dynamics Armament Systems (also known by ...
where he juggled various odd jobs. He opened up his own hobby shop, sold
guppies The guppy (), also known as millionfish and rainbow fish, is one of the world's most widely distributed tropical fish and one of the most popular freshwater aquarium fish species. It is a member of the family Poeciliidae and, like almost all ...
through mail order and built an entire outdoor go-kart racetrack which he ran throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Throughout this time and after those jobs, Al Carbee continued to make art at a fast pace unbeknownst to his community. His wife found his fascination with Barbies embarrassing and tried to tell him he should keep it hidden. His collection of Barbies were relegated to the attics and basements of his house for many years. In 1997, after Carbee's wife Edna died, Carbee's art was discovered by Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier reporter, Aaron Smith. Soon after, Smith introduced Carbee to filmmaker
Jeremy Workman Jeremy Workman is an American filmmaker and editor. His documentary films frequently focus on eccentrics, outsiders, and those with extreme passions. His acclaimed films include '' Lily Topples The World'', '' The World Before Your Feet'', ''Magi ...
. The two became deep friends and Workman created a 5-minute short documentary on Carbee called ''Carbee's Barbies''. The short film was passed around Saco, and eventually led Carbee to be invited to exhibit his artwork in a one-person retrospective at the local Saco Museum. Carbee's Saco Museum show stands as the only public exhibition of Carbee's artwork during his lifetime. "If anyone knows Barbie, it is Carbee" noted the
Bangor Daily News The ''Bangor Daily News'' is an American newspaper covering a large portion of central and eastern Maine, published six days per week in Bangor, Maine. The ''Bangor Daily News'' was founded on June 18, 1889; it merged with the ''Bangor Whig and ...
in its coverage of the then 89-year old's debut show at the Saco Museum.


Art

The art of Al Carbee blends multiple genres, including portraiture, photography, collage, diorama,
automatic writing Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged spiri ...
, and even the art of collecting. Much of his work, especially his photography, features Barbie dolls uniquely dressed inhabiting various otherworldly environments and living in a magical realm, which he called "Epicuma". After Carbee died, his house was seized by the bank and most of the artwork in his house was destroyed. Despite the destruction of his home, many of his collages and artwork have survived. Since his death, several art venues and museums have now showcased and examined his body of work. In the summer of 2016, Al Carbee's artwork was featured as part of the Musee Des Decoratifs Arts major exhibit on Barbie. Carbee's collage work was featured in a section of the exhibit which included artists inspired by Barbie.


Magical Universe

Al Carbee has been the subject of two documentary films by filmmaker
Jeremy Workman Jeremy Workman is an American filmmaker and editor. His documentary films frequently focus on eccentrics, outsiders, and those with extreme passions. His acclaimed films include '' Lily Topples The World'', '' The World Before Your Feet'', ''Magi ...
: a five-minute short film entitled ''Carbee's Barbies'' and the feature-length documentary ''
Magical Universe ''Magical Universe'' is a 2013 documentary film directed by filmmaker Jeremy Workman about reclusive outsider artist Al Carbee who created elaborate dioramas and collages featuring Barbie dolls. The title of the film is taken from Carbee's own vo ...
'' (2014), which was released by IFC Films in October 2014. The first time Jeremy Workman met Carbee, he filmed his home and artwork, which led to the creation of the short film ''Carbee's Barbies''. ''Carbee's Barbies'' was shown in some small regional film festivals. After the release of ''Carbee's Barbies'', Carbee began corresponding with the filmmaker through long type-written letters and rambling video letters. This went on for several years, which led to Carbee's story evolving into the feature-length documentary called ''
Magical Universe ''Magical Universe'' is a 2013 documentary film directed by filmmaker Jeremy Workman about reclusive outsider artist Al Carbee who created elaborate dioramas and collages featuring Barbie dolls. The title of the film is taken from Carbee's own vo ...
''. After winning numerous film festival awards and citations, ''
Magical Universe ''Magical Universe'' is a 2013 documentary film directed by filmmaker Jeremy Workman about reclusive outsider artist Al Carbee who created elaborate dioramas and collages featuring Barbie dolls. The title of the film is taken from Carbee's own vo ...
'' subsequently was acquired by IFC Films and released theatrically throughout the United States on October 31, 2014. It has garnered wide acclaim and created new interest for the art work of Al Carbee.


References


External links


Magical Universe on IMDB

"Al Carbee’s Art of Dolls and Yearning: 'Oh, for a real, live Barbie!'"
by Edward Gómez, Hyperallergic
"Jeremy Workman Talks About Finding His Magical Universe In Maine"
by Tribeca Film *
Magical Universe
' website {{DEFAULTSORT:Carbee, Al 1914 births 20th-century American photographers Artists from Portland, Maine Maine College of Art alumni 2005 deaths People from Saco, Maine Outsider artists