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conference in his memory. In essence Roth's art is about transience,
the consumer society, love, sex and desire, multiplication and
variation, and having a good time - in short, it is about life. So
Surtsey, arising so suddenly in 1963 from the seabed on Roth's
adopted doorstep, became a rich and unexpected metaphor for
the transient, being itself a plate of seafood raised up out of
the North Atlantic fishing grounds. Will it disappear, be eaten
away by the waves, or even quietly rot? Roth, when he made the
print series, could not himself be sure, and even now, nor can
anybody else.
Roth put himself outside the mainstream, but having sui-
cient gravitas to draw others to him he was never an 'outsider',
despite placing himself in Iceland far from the orthodox Western
art axis. He did not seek out his volcano, as did Wright or Church,
it just rose out of the sea, like Venus, and presented itself to him.
An 'outsider artist' of African-American and Native American
descent, Joseph Yoakum (1890-1972) did not begin painting
Joseph Yoakum,
Crater
Head, Maui Province,
Hawaii National Park
,
1960s, ball point pen
and watercolour.
Image not available - no digital rights
