Review: The Ballad of Saint Jay DeFeo at Whitney Museum of American Art

ARTSLANT
by Natalie Hegert

“There is no such thing as inanimate matter…there is 

God or divinity in all matter and it is all living energy.” 

– JAY DEFEO

"The Rose" by Jay DeFeo (1958–66)

NEW YORK---This is a tale of unparalleled devotion. This is a tale of inspired vision. This is a tale of heaving beauty, of divine obsession, of possession, of cosmic light embodied. This is the ballad of Jay DeFeo. Jay DeFeo in the old country saw color and light, in cruciform, in carmine and ochre and earth. She traveled in the footsteps of monks, perhaps not knowing, yet with her she brought back vivid memories of primal shapes and magic circles, spirals, stars, crosses. The studio became her temple. They called her mad. It became as a living thing. It was the divine incarnate; it was Christ from God, Shakti from Shiva, the unity of death and life. [link]

Whitney Museum of American Art: "A Retrospective: Jay DeFeo," (Ends June 2, 2013) 945 Madison Avenue, 75th Street, New York, NY 10021, whitney.org OR (212) 570-3600.