Born April 8, 1909 Elloree, South Carolina
Died November 4, 1964 (aged 55)
Nationality American
Known for sacred art
Style outsider art
Early
life
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, DC,
to join his elder brother Lee, where 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, DC.
Work
In 1946, Hampton became a night janitor with
the General Services Administration.
His brother Lee died in 1948.
In 1950, he rented a garage in northwest
Washington. A month after Hampton's death in
1964, 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.[3]
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 complete work
consists of a total of 180 objects, many of
them inscribed with words from the Book
of Revelation. The objects on the right
side of the central throne appear to refer to
the New Testament; those on the
left side, to the Old Testament.[4]
Hampton had also kept a 108-page loose-leaf
notebook titled St James: The Book
of the 7 Dispensation. Most of
the text had been written in an unknown script
that remains undeciphered.[5]
The text is available online[6]
and has been the subject of research.[7]
Some of this text, however, had been
accompanied by notes in English. In Hampton's
writing, for example, he used the title
"Director, Special Projects for the State of
Eternity"[8] and ended each page with the word
"Revelation".[9][10] Hampton had also written
texts, some of which refer to religious visions,
on various pieces of paper and cardboard and on
a few pages in each of seven other notebooks.
Hampton was somewhat reclusive. He had few close
friends and spent much of his personal time
working on his shrine. He was quite humble but
often referred to himself as "St James". Hampton
attended various churches in Washington and
expressed an interest in finding a "holy woman"
to assist with his life's work. Even so, he
never married. Apart from these and some other
details, not much is known about Hampton's life.
Hampton had kept his project secret from most of
his friends and family. In fact, his relatives
first heard about it when his sister came to
claim his body. The extraordinary story of this
secretive artist finally became public in the
December 15, 1964, issue of the Washington Post.
In 1970, Hampton's work was donated anonymously
to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where it
often is on display.[11]
Death
Hampton died of stomach cancer on November 4,
1964, at the Veteran's Hospital in Washington,
DC.
HamptonThrone.jpg
