Why an American photographer has secretly made and photographed dolls for 30 years: Morton Bartlett and his "family"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In 1993, art critic Marion Harris saw at the fair and a half dozen strange dolls and many photos in which these dolls were captured, like living children - they smiled, played, fooling around … Harris bought out the entire collection, and a couple of years later the master - and his name was Morton Bartlett - he was posthumously famous throughout America. His dolls were sold at auctions for tens of thousands of dollars, there was no end of visitors at personal exhibitions … But who was this man and why his dolls-children still cause a real flurry of discussions?

Art critics, journalists and laypeople tend to blame Bartlett for all mortal sins. This, however, is the usual fate of outsider artists, non-professionals who create art that goes beyond the academic canon. His dolls are so detailed, so meticulous that they evoke thoughts of an unhealthy obsession - at best, a love affair, at worst - small children. During his lifetime, he almost never showed his collection to anyone - but one cannot say that he was too strict about his secret. And even the very classification of Bartlett as an outsider is a matter of controversy, because he was a professional designer. In many ways, Bartlett's mystery is his borderline state: he was too strange for a "normal person" and too "normal" for an outsider.

Morton Bartlett was born in the early 20th century in Chicago. He was left without parents early, grew up in a foster family, with which almost nothing is known about the relationship. For two years he studied at Harvard, but during the Great Depression he was forced to drop out. Already in his student years, he became interested in plaster sculpture, which, according to him, revealed his inner emotional impulses as best as possible. Later he worked as an editor for a craft magazine, ran a gas station, sold furniture, produced and sold souvenirs, was a freelance photographer and graphic designer - in general, he twisted as best he could, but never found himself on the sidelines of life. Bartlett was a creative person in the completely conventional sense of the word. He served in the army and then returned to design and photography, where he excelled.

He photographed really well. He was especially successful in commercial photographs of children, very lyrical and at the same time restrained. Bartlett carefully preserved not only the negatives of these pictures, but also the feedback from his parents - he was more likely to compose a portfolio than to satisfy any other needs. He led a closed and secluded life, but not so much as to arouse suspicion. He was never married, had no family, but this was not something out of the ordinary. Bartlett did not have a special passion for either the opposite sex or his own, but there is a mention of at least one of his warm affection for a woman. The artist was friends with his neighbors, who later recalled him as a subtle and interesting interlocutor, a true connoisseur of art - except that his extreme punctuality slightly irritated those around him. His friendship with the artist Kalil Gibran and his wife was especially strong. When moving, they tried to find housing as close to each other as possible.

And all these years he made dolls, dressed them up and photographed them.

They were all superbly done. On their miniature fingers there are nails with elaborated cuticles, their images are individual, their bodies are anatomical, daring smiles reveal rows of tiny teeth. Their images are inspired by the Northern Renaissance, Hollywood cinema, book illustrations … The amazing liveliness of their facial expressions frightens the unprepared viewer - real emotions on a toy face.

Twelve of the fifteen that have survived are girls. They repeat the poses of the heroines of cinema and glossy magazines, and several small dancers are clearly created under the influence of Degas' paintings.

Three male dolls, presumably self-portraits of Bartlett himself at the age when he was orphaned. All of them are made of painted plaster and are dressed in fabric dresses and suits, holding small books or toys in their hands. Most dolls have mobile and removable body parts, which made it easy to change their positions. Bartlett worked on each for many months.

In 1962, the story of the puppeteer designer was leaked to the press - only Kahlil Gibran had seen his work before. In general, the article about him was benevolent, but somewhat condescending. The journalist wrote about him as a local curiosity, a lonely eccentric, but the title was really strange - "Beloved of Mr. Bartlett." Apparently, this became the starting point in the perception of his work as an expression of an unhealthy interest in children. It was also assumed that Bartlett's toys were prototypes for industrial production (this idea, by the way, was later promoted by Kahlil Gibran). After about this publication (although it does not mean that due to), Bartlett apparently stopped practicing his hobby - after his death, the dolls were found wrapped in 1963 newspapers.

And … nothing tragic, as is often the case with outsider artists, did not happen. Bartlett lived a long life as a friend of the Kahlil Gibran family. He owned a printing agency - quite successful. According to the will, his entire savings of $ 300,000 were divided among charities that work with orphans.

Now they are making documentaries about him, writing books, arguing and debating. Someone compares him with the hero of Nabokov's "Lolita" because of too bold photos of dolls-children, someone - with the father of Pinocchio, dreaming of escape from loneliness. Some say that Bartlett gave life to the girl whom he felt at heart, but in those years transgenderness would not have met understanding, while others - that he was simply having fun and practicing photography skills, including color. But Morton Bartlett's dolls are silent, as he himself is silent about them, and, apparently, their secret will never be revealed.