MERRITT gene

Gene Merritt grew up with alcoholic and violent parents. His mother committed suicide when he was twelve years old. As an adult, he worked odd jobs and joined his father in leading a life full of violence and alcohol. At the age of fifty-six he began drawing. The drawings from the first period, inspired by the photos of show business stars, political personalities but also animals, are composed like puzzles from dislocated pieces. After the death of his father Gene Merritt lived completely abandoned in a trailer on the land of a family that was supposed to take care of him. Thanks to the support of some rare friends and social aide Gene Merritt stopped drinking. He lived in a social housing in Rock Hill. His drawings had become simpler, the lines dividing the faces had disappeared and the portraits had become smoother.

8 minutes . Digital Beta . French-English . Edit / Jan Zuska c/o UPP . Image Treatment . Rasto Simocko c/o UPP . Graphic Design / Michal Habrdla c/o UPP . Music / John Lee Hooker “backstabbers” / Otis Redding “(sittin’on) the dock of the bay” . Mix / Lukas Moudry c/o beep . Executive Production / Barbara Safarova . Post-production / Jan Hrubec c/o Filmservice Productions . With the help of: Tom Stanley, Pavel Simbartl, Tiffany Hanney, Michal Kuba, Filmservice Productions, UPP . Production abcd 2000

broadcast:

.American Folk Art Museum, New York
.High Museum of Art, Atlanta
.Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne

ABDELARRAZZAK aouam

1956 . khouribga . morocco

Aouam Abdellarrazzak, nicknamed Ralhi (“elder brother”), was born in a mining town south of Casablanca. He originally did truck maintenance for a print shop, but the business went bankrupt. His marriage fell apart, and on top of it he landed in prison for involuntary manslaughter, which sent him into deep depression and resulted in his drug addiction. With the help of his older sister, he managed to control his addiction and found a precarious equilibrium in drawing. His work depicts hybrid characters in which plant and animal shapes are intertwined with human faces. Abdellarrazzak long viewed his art as nothing more than a meaningless pastime and even threw some of his drawings away.