While some seek solitude and are actually buoyed by it, others find it sad and unsettling — particularly when unforeseen circumstances have cast it upon them. In the vibrant painting pictured above, Get In Where You Fit In, fashioned with oil and acrylic by the self-taught Bay Area-based artist Humberto Ramirez, the subject is seemingly at peace in solitude with nature. Several more visual renderings of solitude follow:
The late self-taught artist Joseph E. Yoakum, who began at age 71 drawing landscapes of the places he had visited, “Rock of Gibraltar,” Blue fountain pen, black ballpoint pen, pastel and watercolor on paper — as seen at MoMA.
Alabama-based mixed media artist Tameca Cole, “All Locked in a Dark Calm,” 2016, Collage and graphite on paper (created when the artist was incarcerated) — as seen at MoMA PS 1
The late German-born visual artist Rosemarie Koczy, best-known for her searing works about the Holocaust, “KZ: Ottenhausen / Traunstein,” 1996, Ink on paper — as seen at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore
Colombia-born, NYC-based painter and designer Guiomar Giraldo-Baron, “Mask On,” 2021, Print on paper on wood — as seen at Fountain House Gallery
Photos of artworks: Lois Stavsky
