James Hampton (artist)

James Hampton (April 8, 1909–November 4, 1964) was an African-American janitor who secretly built a large assemblage of religious art from scavenged materials.

James Hampton was born in Elloree, South Carolina in 1909. His father was a gospel singer and a traveling Baptist preacher. In 1928, Hampton left for Washington, D.C. to join his elder brother Lee. They shared an apartment. James Hampton worked as a short-order cook until 1942 when he was drafted into United States Army Air Forces. He served as a carpenter with the noncombatant 385th Aviation Squadron around the Pacific theatre. He was honorably discharged in 1945 and returned to Washington, D.C.

In 1946, Hampton became a night janitor with the General Services Administration. In 1950 he rented a garage in northwest Washington. His brother Lee died in 1948. Hampton died of stomach cancer on November 4, 1964 at the Veteran's Hospital in Washington, D.C. He never married.

A month later Meyer Wertlieb, owner of the garage, came to find out why the rent had not been paid. He knew that Hampton had been building something in the garage. When he opened the door, he found a room filled with many symmetrical, glittering objects surrounding a central throne.

For 14 years, Hampton had been building a throne out of various old materials like aluminum and gold foil, old furniture, various pieces of cardboard, old light bulbs, shards of mirror and old desk blotters. He had pinned it together with tacks, glue, pins and tape.

It is unknown whether Hampton considered himself an artist. Hampton's work would be an example of folk or naïve art — art made by people who are self-taught, who have not studied art techniques, art history, or art theory. [Getlein, Mark. "Gilbert's Living With Art", Sixth Edition, New York, 2002.] The text "The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly" was written on the objects in Hampton's handwriting. He had emblazoned the words "Fear Not" above the central throne. The garage contained total of 177 objects. Many of them were inscribed with words out of the biblical book of Revelation. The objects on the right side of the central throne seem to refer to the New Testament and those on the left side to the Old Testament [Stokstad, Marilyn. "Art History", Revised Second Edition, Volume One, Pearson, 2005. ISBN 0-13-145528-1] .

Hampton had also kept a 112-page notebook, titled "St James: The Book of the 7 Dispensation", written in his personal code. He referred to himself as St. James and ended each page with the word "Revelation". He had written more text on various pieces of paper and cardboard. Some of them refer to religious visions. Hampton's personal code remains unsolved.

The story became public in the December 15, 1964 issue of the "Washington Post". Hampton had kept his project secret; his relatives first heard about it when his sister came to claim his body.

Wertlieb sold the throne to two people who anonymously donated it to the National Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum) in 1970.

References

* "St. James the Janitor," "Fortean Times" #150, 2001

External links

* [http://americanart.si.edu/search/artist_bio.cfm?StartRow=1&ID=2052 James Hampton biography] - Smithsonian American Art Museum
* [http://www.geocities.com/ctesibos/hampton/index.html Dennis Stalling's site about deciphering "Hamptonese"]