As we wish to celebrate National Braille Literacy Month this January, we will be taking a dive into a selection of blind artists, and how they became so talented despite their challenges. First off, we travel back in time to the 17th century, when an Italian sculptor was making moves in Tuscany.
Giovanni Gonnelli - "The Blind Man from Gambassi"
Born in 1603, he was to enjoy normal eyesight for his entire upbringing and into adulthood. He found himself practicing sculpture amongst the strongly artistic populace that was to be found in Tuscany.
According to historians, Gonnelli was first discovered in the studio of Pietro Tacca, an influential Baroque sculptor, by the Duke of Mantua Charles Gonzaga. This was an amazing opportunity for him to gain influence and patronage from the nobles and high-born people of society. As they travelled together back to Mantua, it looked like he was on the path to a successful career.
However, invading armies tend to throw spanners into the works. Unfortunately, his arrival had coincided with a German Siege of the city, as part of the War of the Mantuan Succession, itself, a part of the larger Thirty Years' War that was raging across Europe. While no one is certain how exactly he came to be blind, but it is during this period, possibly due to deprivation and labour, that he completely lost his vision.
This did not stop him. After a brief spell of sadness, he was back in Tuscany and sculpting again. His blindness evidently never hindered him from making top-of-the-art sculptures. He went on to receive numerous accolades throughout the rest if his life, including the Grand Duke of Tuscany and even Pope Urban VIII!
Self-Likeness by Giovanni Gonnelli (survived until 1942, before it was lost)
Michael Naranjo
Back to present day now, but we travel to the U.S. to explore the life and work of Native-American Vietnam war veteran and sculptor Michael Naranjo, whose service cost him his sight, but not his vocation. Born to his mother Rose Naranjo in 1944, he was exposed to working with clay and pottery from a young age in his home city of Taos, New Mexico. He has recalled in interviews dancing on his mother's clay until it had been kneaded. He knew from a young age that he would follow his mother's footsteps.
Yet again, war would play an instrumental part in completely changing a talented artists' life. The United States of America had interjected itself in the Vietnam War in 1965, and by 1968, Naranjo was one of the 536,000 American soldiers deployed in the war-torn country. It was in this year that while on patrol, a Vietcong soldier threw a grenade that blinded him... as well as blowing his right hand off.
It was during his convalescence while recovering from these gnarly injuries that he started to work with clay, using touch to find his way around the piece. It wasn't long before he moved to paper-mache, wax and bronze. Focusing on sculptures of Native-Americans and wildlife, he has gained in popularity over the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st. He presented a sculpture to Richard Nixon, which now sits in the permanent collection of the White House. Barack Obama recited him at the American Veterans Disabled For Life Memorial. He was given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when the Italian government let him physically touch Michelangelo's David. These are just a few examples of how he was able to ascend societal expectations.
The Dancer (2013) by Michael Naranjo
Eşref Armağan
While the artists previously discussed had once had the gift of sight and then subsequently lost it, Eşref Armağan was born with both eyes significantly underdeveloped; One of his eyes failed to develop beyond a ‘’rudimentary bud’’, meanwhile the other was ‘’stunted and scarred’’. This meant from the very earliest age he was forced to heighten his other senses in order to experience the world around him. He also relied heavily on his father to guide him.
When it comes to his creative process, he has deftly adapted to the challenges that faces him when he wants to paint. he often uses a braille stylus or a rope covered in a sticky substance to create the outline of his drawing. He requires complete silence before he begins painting. He then uses his fingers to apply the oil paint. After he applies one layer, he leaves it to dry before applying a new colour so that there is no smudging. The art pieces themselves are created without help from any individual.
Armağan is particular about emphasising that his art is "..to prove that I can draw by touch." If he were to "specialise in abstract art, the critics would dismiss my efforts as ‘he paints things as he feels them" rather than a skill to see past his blindness.
None of these artists wished to be defined by their disability, or sought to become widely successful artists. However, it is because they were able to adapt and work around their disability that they are only more incredible. Their art has been exhibition all over the globe, they've been lauded by Presidents, Popes, and any person lucky enough to come across their life and work.
In our heads, it's hard to imagine that household names like van Gogh and Rembrandt, with such expertise in using colour to make their pieces come alive, could possibly have been partially sighted. Yet, the evidence is there.
Have you ever looked closely at a Rembrandt self-portrait? Specifically, have you ever focused on his eyes? They're not quite straight, are they? You'll see that this is a consistent feature of his self-portraits, and this has led some to theorise that he had Strabismus, which would lead to poor depth perception and blurred vision, while others believe he had stereoblindness, the inability to use the horizontal shift between eyes to see in 3D.