About the
Gallery:
In 1952 the curators of the Bagasse and Gematria Mumblestoats Museum of Depressionist Art were approached by the executors of the estate of the late Gladys Ralston (née Dwindlebimmers) with the news that the Museum was to be gifted with a sculpture wing as part of a bequest by Mrs. Ralston. As Gematria Mumblestoats herself put it upon hearing the news:
"I was plumb overcome. Alla time people had been coming to the Museum and saying, 'Hey, where's the sculture." You can't have no kind of a respectable museum without it has some
scultures. And from Gladdy Dwindlebimmers, of all people. She and me hadn't spoken since that time in 7th grade when I pushed her out of the hay loft for making time with Bagasse after the Sunday school dance and ice cream sociable. I guess it was just Christian forgiveness, it purely was."
Mrs. Ralston's late husband Abercrombie, heir to the Redbone meat-packing family fortune, had scoured the world searching for items to add to his collection. It was a curious gathering of art because of the determination of both Mr. and Mrs. Ralston to commemorate the unfortunate circumstances under which they had been born.
Both had been orphans of unknown, but undoubtedly shameful parentage, adopted into the Redbone community by prominent families who had remained childless after the poisoning of the town water supply by Rubidia Leghorne, registered witch, in revenge for the Redbone Meatpackers Trust having made off with her goat, Erzulie, and converted the poor animal into "Rations: Hash [Other]" which was shipped to the troops overseas as part of the war effort.*
So the Ralston's collection was famous for having not a single identifiable artist in it, to commemorate their own uncertain origins.
Now this posed a dilemma to the Mumblestoats, since the paintings in the Museum of Depressionist Art were all of
well-known, or at least notorious artists. Furthermore, the Ralston's collection did not follow the dedicated theme of Depressionism.
Fortunately, in a burst of generosity, Mrs. Mumblestoats agreed to allow the sculpture wing to
operate as a wholly independent part of the newly-expanded Museum, with its
own curators and staff. This settled, the " Gladys Dwindlebimmers Ralston
Gallery of the Unidentifiable," under the able direction of Dr. Tulip A. Pandowdy, was formally opened on June 14, 1954.
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* "The Kidless Years: The Poisoned Reservoir and the Revenge of the Poisoned Reservoir," Chapter 22, "The Universal History of Redbone" Yungfrau/Altendorfer (London & Bombay, 1972)
click on a sculpture below to see
enlarged image and commentary:
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