Royal Robertson
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Royal Robertson (20 October 1930 – 5 July 1997), also known as the self-proclaimed Prophet Royal Robertson, was an American artist.


Early life and marriage

Born in
St. Mary Parish, Louisiana St. Mary Parish (french: Paroisse de Sainte-Marie) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 54,650. The parish seat is Franklin. The parish was created in 1811. St. Mary Parish comprises th ...
, on 20 October 1930, Robertson spent almost his entire life in
Baldwin, Louisiana Baldwin is a town in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 2,436 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, down from 2,497 in 2000 United States Census, 2000. It is part of the Morgan City, ...
. Robertson left school having completed the
eighth grade Eighth grade (or grade eight in some regions) is the eighth post-kindergarten year of formal education in the US. The eighth grade is the ninth school year, the second, third, fourth, or final year of middle school, or the second and/or final ye ...
. In his late teens he apprenticed as a sign painter and traveled to the West coast in his early twenties working as a field hand and sign painter. He returned to Louisiana in the 1950s to care for his mother where he continued to work as a sign painter. He married Adell Bren (or Lockett) in 1955 and they had eleven children. Their marriage ended after 19 years when Adell left him for another man, moved to Texas taking their children with her, and became a minister.


Works

Robertson remained in Louisiana after his marriage ended and became a recluse. He was largely scorned by his neighbors and was overcome by misogynistic rage towards his former wife and women in general. Robertson had paranoid schizophrenia and claimed to have had his first vision, a futuristic vision of a spaceship with God as the driver, when he was fourteen. When his marriage ended he began to record his visions in his imagery and writings. Numerous hallucinatory visions of space travel where aliens predicted the
End of Days End of days may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''End of Days'' (film), a 1999 supernatural film Music * ''The End of Days'', a 2010 album by Abney Park * ''End of Days'' (soundtrack), a soundtrack album from the 1999 film ...
through complex numerological formulas and warned him about the dangers of adultery and fornication led Robertson to believe that he was a victim of a global female conspiracy. He believed that his ex-wife's betrayal would be the cause of the cataclysmic destruction of humanity, and that his art was divinely sanctioned. According to social anthropologist Frédéric Allamel, Robertson saw himself as a patriarch in search of a new Zion and a prophet whose legacy would consist of his apocryphal work. He identified himself as "Libra Patriarch Prophet Lord Archbishop Apostle Visionary Mystic Psychic Saint Royal Robertson".


Materials and themes

Robertson worked on materials like poster board and paper or wood using magic markers, tempera paint, colored pencils, ballpoint pens, and glitter. He studied the
Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
and there are many references to it in his work together with references to "
girlie magazine This is a list of magazines primarily marketed to men. The list has been split into subcategories according to the target audience of the magazines. This list includes mostly mainstream magazines as well as adult ones. Not included here are autom ...
s",
comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
s and
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
. He was preoccupied with
numerology Numerology (also known as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in ...
and
biblical prophecies Bible prophecy or biblical prophecy comprises the passages of the Bible that are claimed to reflect communications from God to humans through prophets. Jews and Christians usually consider the biblical prophets to have received revelations from G ...
of the End of Days from the
Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of R ...
. Frequent themes included images of aliens and their spaceships, Bible verses and religious references, fire breathing,
godzilla is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film ''Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films produc ...
-like monsters, snakes, architectural drawings of houses and temples in futuristic cities,
superheroes A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...
, and portraits of Adell often identified with Jezebel and other Amazon-like "harlots". His colorful drawings often included rambling, judgmental, ranting texts, sometimes in comic book-like
speech balloons Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a charac ...
, about "adulterous whores" and unfaithful spouses. He frequently referenced precise and painful moments in his life, particularly his wife's unfaithfulness to him, and produced calendars chronicling memories of his marriage in short journal notations scribbled in each date's block. Much of his work included images that conveyed a sense of the artist pitted against the forces of evil. His works were often double-sided and when he signed pieces, he would add "Prophet" to the front of his name, or alternatively "Patriarch".


Home

Robertson's home and yard were decorated with hundreds of his signs, drawings, calendars, and shrines. The exterior was decorated with a variety of painted and rotating signs including warnings that "whores" and "bastards" should stay away and misogynistic messages denouncing "bad" women often addressed to his ex-wife Adell. The interior was decorated with his drawings pinned to every available wall. Many drawings inside his home were of his ex-wife and the interior included a number of shrines dedicated to her. According to Allamel, Robertson developed a "complicated spatial ritualization" before he would allow visitors into his "sacred/profane inner space". His home was destroyed by
Hurricane Andrew Hurricane Andrew was a very powerful and destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that struck the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana in August 1992. It is the most destructive hurricane to ever hit Florida in terms of structures damaged ...
in August 1992. Two collectors helped him file papers with the federal government to recover from his losses.


Exhibitions and collections

Robertson's work has been featured in many exhibitions and a number of works are held in permanent collections including the
Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...
, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the
Mississippi Museum of Art The Mississippi Museum of Art is a public museum in Jackson, Mississippi. It is the largest museum in Mississippi. Location It is located at the corner of 380 South Lamar Street and 201 East Pascagoula Street in Jackson, Mississippi.Lee Ellis, ''F ...
, the University Art Museum, Lafayette,
The Brogan Museum The Mary Brogan Museum of Arts and Science, also known as the Brogan Museum and MOAS was an art and science museum located at 350 South Duval Street, Tallahassee, Florida. History Located in downtown Tallahassee on Kleman Plaza, the museum was ...
, the American Visionary Art Museum and the Art Museum of Southeast Texas.


Exhibitions

''Called To Create: Black Artists of the American South'', National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, September 18, 2022 – March 26, 2023, curated by Harry Cooper.


Death

Robertson was found lying unconscious in the backyard of his home by his daughter Dinah where he died suddenly from a heart attack in 1997 in Louisiana, aged 66.


Film

In 2009, Scott Ogden and Malcolm Hearn produced the documentary ''Make'' that examined the lives and art-making techniques of Robertson,
Hawkins Bolden Hawkins Bolden (1914–2005) was an American artist known for his "scarecrow" assemblages made from pots, pans, leather belts, rubber hoses and other found materials. Early life Bolden was born in the Bailey's Bottom section of Memphis, Tenn ...
,
Judith Scott Judith Scott may refer to: * Judith Scott (artist) (1943 – 2005), American fiber artist * Judith Scott (American actress) (born 1965), American television actress * Judith Scott (British actress) Judi Scott (1957–2018) was a British the ...
and Ike Morgan.


In popular culture

The title of the 2010 album ''
The Age of Adz ''The Age of Adz'' ( ) is the sixth studio album by American singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens, released on October 12, 2010 by Asthmatic Kitty. It was Stevens' first song-based full-length album in five years, since the release of ''Illinois'' in ...
'' by American artist
Sufjan Stevens Sufjan Stevens ( ; born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released nine solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nomi ...
is a reference to the work of Robertson. Robertson's work is used for the cover and interior design of the album, as well as for the supporting tour, where his imagery is animated synchronously with the live music. The album's lyrical content reflects and responds to Robertson's work and circumstances, including themes like "divine revelation, oracles, love, the cosmos, the Apocalypse," according to promotional material for the album from Asthmatic Kitty Records.


Notes


References

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Further reading

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External links


galerie christian berst
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, Royal 1997 deaths Artists from Louisiana People with schizophrenia Visionary artists Folk artists African-American artists American artists People from St. Helena Parish, Louisiana People from Baldwin, Louisiana 1930 births 20th-century African-American people Outsider artists