Gregory Blackstock

Gregory Lee Blackstock (January 9, 1946 – January 10, 2023) was an American self-taught artist. Regarded as an autistic savant, Blackstock created drawings featuring orderly categories of types of objects. A feature article on the artist by the Seattle Weekly described him as an "anthropologist of the everyday." An exhibit review by Seattle Times art critic Robert Ayers described his impact by declaring "Gregory Blackstock is one of our city's greatest artists."

Early life and education

Gregory Lee Blackstock was born in Seattle on January 9, 1946.

Despite his intelligence, he was educated at a series of schools for children with developmental disabilities. When he was ten years old he was sent to Devereux Ranch School, a school in Santa Barbara for children with disabilities. He also attended Holly Acres Training School in Applegate, California.

Work and artistic efforts

As a teenager, Blackstock held a job as a newspaper carrier for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In his late twenties, he had a position as a janitor in a hotel. Art critic Robert Ayers described Blackstock's "cheerful" work: Blackstock researched topics at his local library, making use of reference works like encyclopedias to learn details about each subject. In 2011, the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne held a solo exhibition of his work. Beginning in 2012, Blackstock was represented by Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle, which featured him in several single-artist and contextualized thematic exhibitions. In 2021, an exhibit titled "The Incomplete Historical World, Parts I, II & III" featured limited-edition prints of his work which were a collaborative project between the artist, his family, and Greg Kucera Gallery. Some of his images were used for haute couture clothing by Comme des Garçons, and others were sold as greeting cards and jigsaw puzzles. The obituary published by KING-TV described him as "Seattle's most original artist."