#albert wagner

[dreamconsumer]

Portrait of Maria Teresa of Savoy (1801-1855), consort of King Carlo Alberto. By Albert Wagner.

[zzzze]

Herbert Ascherman (American, 1947-) Rev. Albert Wagner, Painter, 2001 Gelatin silver print.

[feifalik]

Maria Theresa of Austria (21 March 1801 – 12 January 1855), Queen of Sardinia. Portrait by Albert Wagner (1816-1867)

[godspot]

The Art of Rev. Albert Wagner

From avam.org

Born in 1924 in Bassett, Arkansas, Albert Wagner went to work in the cotton fields as a water carrier for the pickers when he was ten years old. In 1941 at the age of 17, he moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked as a dishwasher before starting his own furniture moving company. Years later, while cleaning his basement in preparation for his fiftieth birthday celebration, he noticed some paint spatters on a piece of wood and was suddenly overwhelmed with memories of his childhood and with inspiration for works of art. In the years that followed he made hundreds of paintings and sculptures to "get the Word out."

Turning his house on Cleveland's east side into an environment he called "The People Love People House of God," the Reverend Albert Wagner decorated the outside of the building with found objects. He crammed the interior with enormous sculptures around which he counseled members of his small, informal congregation, which met regularly at a nearby store-front church. Albert worked in his home studio creating over 3,000 paintings and sculptures for 32 years, until his death on September 1, 2006 at age 82.

"All my life I wanted to paint. I just didn't know how. God gives directions and you have to follow them." –Reverend Albert Wagner

[peepclestreetstyle]

Rev. Albert Wagner is a Cleveland legend.  Wagner believed in redemption. A minister and self-taught artist who began preaching and painting at age 50, he expressed this belief in both the form and material of his work. He proclaimed he had been called by God to turn away from sin and give moral and religious instruction through his paintings and sculpture. His depictions of biblical scenes, episodes from America’s tortured history, and confessions of his own shameful misdeeds all contributed to the challenging, prophetic vision Wagner believed it was his task to spread. His creativity and piety could not be untangled from each other. As his daughter Bonita Wagner Johnson said, “God and art saved Albert from a world of sin.”Not only the content of his paintings, but even his materials expressed belief in transformative restoration. His sculptures were made from what he called “objects from the alley” — found objects which had been discarded or had outlived their original use. What might have been garbage was given elevated purpose in pieces like “A Black Cat Coming out of a White Bag,” in which a bowling ball bursts from a sack. It represents Wagner’s call to fearless, public testimony on behalf of the good and the right.Wagner’s family, with assistance from the Northeast Shores Development Corporation, is attempting to establish a museum that would present his work and the story of his life. The proposed location is a foreclosed house on East 156th Street. Given the Reverend’s preoccupation with uplifting fallen things, it is perhaps appropriate the seat of his legacy might reside in a fixer-upper.