Record Details
Nazareth
Artist
Perley M. Wentworth
((1893–1985))
Date1950s
Place/RegionCalifornia, United States
MediumCrayon, pencil, gouache, and watercolor on paper
Dimensions18 × 24"
Credit LineGift of Helen and Jack Bershad
Accession number2012.20.1
CopyrightCopyright for this work is under review.
DescriptionThis mysterious drawing is typical of the mystical ambiguity Perley M. Wentworth endowed to the forty or so drawings that are known. The depiction bears some resemblance to renderings of the biblical city Nazareth, and one might conjecture that it is Jesus who is emerging from the imposing structure in fluttering white robes. Such religious themes are prevalent in the drawings that sometimes have didactic titles or texts, and often the word “imagination.” The mediumistic quality of the drawings is sympathetic with the artist’s reported process of gazing at the night sky and transcribing the images that came to him; on some of the drawings Wentworth recorded the time and day that the visions came to him. The artist himself remains as elusive as the meanings of these apocalyptic works that he created in California during the 1950s. Around that time Wentworth introduced himself to Dr. Tarmo Pasto, the psychologist who first brought recognition to the work of Martín Ramiréz. Pasto collected Wentworth’s drawings, and much of what we know about the artist today stems from their conversations. It is believed he may be the Perley Meyer Wentworth whose name appears in the Oakland telephone directory between 1955 and 1959 and who died around 1960.
