B J NEWTON Outside Art Painting o/c titled NEW KINGS REIGN, measures 18" x 24", untitled, done in 1972. Measures 17" x 24". From retired NYC & Chicago gallery owner, where one of their many genre's was outsider art, among others, “B. J.” Newton said that he heard God speak to him one day out in the exercise yard at California’s Folsom State Prison, where he seems to have wound up on a regular basis. Instructed by the Lord to paint, Newton began making art with tremendous vigor. He worked as a cook in the prison, where he sometimes signed his name ‘Backward Jesus.’ His work was seen by Chicago artists Gladys Nilsson and Jim Nutt in the late 1960s, and was later included in several exhibitions of work by self-taught artists. He painted primarily in oils in a style that is both presentational and expressionistic, favoring subjects from religious stories, fantasy, and mysticism. It is not known if he is still active or alive.

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