Little is known about the life of C. T. McClusky, except that he was a circus clown and spent his winters between 1940 and 1960 in a boarding house in Oakland. In 1975, John Turner discovered in a tattered old black suitcase at the flea market in Alameda fifty-three collages that this man had created from found materials (cardboard folders, aluminum foil, string, photographic illustrations, etc.). In them, McClusky gives free rein to his imagination. These creations convey an almost childlike playfulness, combining newspaper clippings with drawing and gouache, sometimes punctuated with bursts of light thanks to touches of metallic paper. These images recount his daily life, made up of travel and performances.
McCLUSKY C.T.
