Dwight Mackintosh’s story really begins seventy-two years after his birth. Case records reveal very little about his life previous to his being institutionalized. He was born on May 19, 1906, and lived with his parents and brother in Hayward, California, until shortly after turning sixteen, when he was admitted into Sonoma State Hospital. The reasons for Mackintosh’s initial institutionalization are no longer on record; however, surviving court document indicateshe had become “unmanageable at home.”
After twenty-five years at Sonoma, on January 27, 1947, Mackintosh was transferred to DeWitt State Hospital in Auburn, California. There he spent another twenty-five years. On March 1, 1972, he was moved again, this time to Stockton State Hospital, where he spent his last six institutionalized years. Due to a growing trend in America of de-institutionalizing the mentally ill and the mentally retarded, a decision was made to release Mackintosh. His brother, Earl, remembered Mackintosh’s earlier interest in art and took him to The Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California.
In his new surroundings, Mackintosh was given the opportunity to draw and paint the visions he had formerly never expressed. Drawing became a compulsion for him, as he concentrated for hour after hour on his work, often falling asleep, dozing for a little while, then waking to resume his work again. Art is our only insight into Mackintosh’s world, for he is otherwise deeply withdrawn. He draws mostly with felt-tip pens and sometimes uses watercolors and transparent inks, although color never takes precedence over line. Using sweeping, graphic lines, he approaches his work with abandon, yet his people, vehicles, and buildings are filled with an abundance of detail. Mackintosh’s subject matter has remained virtually consistent. |
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