Out of the Wastebasket

Melancholia, in a Swamp looked little different from dozens of other muzzy abstractions. When Sidney Key, the curator of the Toronto Art Gallery, received it in the mail last month, along with a request for some "constructive criticism," he drafted a tactful reply. "You are considerably interested," he wrote Robert Lealess of Vancouver, "in a variety of effects that can be arrived at through experimental use of your materials, and you seem to be aware of the accidental effects that can result from lines, calligraphy, blots and the use of a spray gun."

In Vancouver, 17-year-old Robert Lealess read Curator Key's comments with glee. He handed the picture and the curator's letter to the local press, explaining that Melancholia in a Swamp was nothing but a piece of cardboard that had been used by commercial artists for wiping their brushes and testing their spray guns. All Lealess did was pick it out of the wastebasket, mount it and give it a title.

Last week, thanks to wide newspaper and radio coverage, Melancholia was the best-known abstraction in Canada. Lealess accepted two U.S. television bids, including an offer to appear with his masterpiece on We, the People. He could also boast a blurb for his painting from an expert who knew what it was. Said Jerry Morris, curator of the Vancouver Art Gallery: "This accidental doodle can be regarded as a work of art worthy of serious criticism on two levels. The artists cleaning their brushes may either consciously or unconsciously contribute to this form and selection by the placing of their brush strokes. The man who recognized the quality of the picture in rescuing it from the wastepaper basket was to a certain extent functioning as an artist."

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