First published: Winter 1998
Jadunath took an overdose when he was 15 and was confined to a psychiatric hospital as a result. For him, art became a release. The poet E.R. Braithwaite was a London County Council social worker who got to know Jadunath. He recommended that Jadunath be returned home to his mother, which indeed he was. Once back home, he continued making art. It became an obsessive activity for him. Much of his work was carried out in pen and ink on rolls of paper bought for 2/6d each (about 12p/24¢ today). At the age of 22 he took part in his first exhibition at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, South London.
He became more involved in art as a general activity, working on creative programmes with children, helping them to paint and make things at the Barbican Centre and at the People's Gallery. With a small grant from Croydon Council he was able to take an etching course at Croydon Art School where one of the staff was sculptor Anna Panchenko, a friend of Victor Musgrave the founder of London's Outsider Archive. Anna Panchenko came to see Jadunath's work and introduced him to Musgrave; as a result over twenty works of his were housed in the Outsider Archive collection.
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This is an article extract; read the full article in Raw Vision #58
