Eliot Whitehead
In 1974, this renowned artist’s artist, packed and sealed with rope and wax, a dynamite crate of Atlas Powder’s. The top carved: 'All Fool’s Day 1974 closed Open 2000'Was it his intent the crate not be opened until his death? Perhaps. It remained unopened for forty years, contents unknown. Wrapped in fishing nets, protected by hooks and anchors was artistic gold - his sketchbooks from 1956-1974. Widely known, controversial, iconoclastic and often imitated by those in his sphere, little is known of his immense body of work. Literally thousands of oils, acrylics, watercolors, drawings, prints, and painted paper are scattered to the four corners - yet none can be found for sale. The rare instant a Camblin shows up on eBay or other sites, it is immediately snatched up, price never questioned. Like his explosive, time capsule crate, it is an adventure many undertake to uncover an original. Those in museums, private collections, and the Smithsonian are never for sale. Like all beautiful, masterful and unique art, they remain closely held. Like a modern-age pirate, his treasures were often hidden and abandoned, left to be discovered by future treasure hunters. This book is an effort to give this extraordinary artist a wider recognition – to bring him to an audience of those with discriminating sensibility, who will know, “Yes, he is the real thing.' Adept in all mediums, it was the ink line, the fundamental line, pure and shaded, that took him above and beyond the everyman ability: intimate drawings and musings never intended for the public eye, unmediated, spontaneous expressions of joy in free hand.
