Skip Navigation

Untitled

Judith Scott

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art

Judith Scott began making art at age 46, producing idiosyncratic sculptural assemblages in a career spanning seventeen years. From 1989 until her death in 2005, Scott worked at Creative Growth, a studio-based program in Oakland, California, founded to support artists with developmental disabilities. Fastidiously weaving, bundling, and wrapping fiber, found objects, and other unconventional materials, she often worked for weeks or months on a single piece.

Scott’s life experience as an artist with Down syndrome who was largely deaf and spoke little highlights the limitations of the conventional art-historical canon. Moving beyond the term “outsider artist,” critics and curators have recently contextualized her objects within mainstream art history, telling a richer, more complex story about how artistic gifts can be nurtured and compelling works of art can be made by artists reflecting a broader range of cognitive diversity than has been historically recognized.
MEDIUM Fiber and found objects
DATES 1994
DIMENSIONS 27 x 23 x 17 in. (68.6 x 58.4 x 43.2 cm)  (show scale)
ACCESSION NUMBER 2015.30
CREDIT LINE Florence B. and Carl L. Selden Fund
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Judith Scott (American, 1943–2005). Untitled, 1994. Fiber and found objects, 27 x 23 x 17 in. (68.6 x 58.4 x 43.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Florence B. and Carl L. Selden Fund, 2015.30. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, Benjamin Blackwell,er, 2015.30_Benjamin_Blackwell_photograph.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 2015.30_Benjamin_Blackwell_photograph.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, Benjamin Blackwell, photographer, 2013
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT © Estate of Judith Scott
The Brooklyn Museum holds a non-exclusive license to reproduce images of this work of art from the rights holder named here. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org. If you wish to contact the rights holder for this work, please email copyright@brooklynmuseum.org and we will assist if we can.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.
Judith Scott (American, 1943–2005). <em>Untitled</em>, 1994. Fiber and found objects, 27 x 23 x 17 in. (68.6 x 58.4 x 43.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Florence B. and Carl L. Selden Fund, 2015.30. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, Benjamin Blackwell,er, 2015.30_Benjamin_Blackwell_photograph.jpg)