Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava
When I learned that Ricky Jay had passed on November 24th at 72, I found myself revisiting his remarkable show Wordplay: Matthias Buchinger’s Drawings from the Collection of Ricky Jay that appeared at The Met spring, 2016. I’ve never been into magic but I have to admit being completely under the spell of Ricky Jay when I’ve seen him on TV, video and even the movies he appeared in. Even being an outsider to his world, he struck me as being remarkable. As I watched, it seemed he was a throwback, someone who learned his craft like Musicians and Artists learn theirs, through direct experience with their predecessors and through long and careful study of them. I admired most the respect he had for those who had mastered his craft before him. I soon discovered there was much more to Ricky Jay. How to characterize him?
“Oh what a thrill
Fascinations galore
How you tease
How you leave me to burn”*
Well, the bio on his site says, “While Ricky Jay has long been considered one of the world’s great sleight-of-hand artists, his career is further distinguished by the remarkable variety of his accomplishments as an author, actor, historian and consultant.” Ricky Jay was a wonder in many, many ways. As it turns out, even that wide-ranging description leaves out his accomplishments as a collector.
Installation view of Wordplay: Matthias Buchinger’s Drawings from the Collection of Ricky Jay at The Met, March 18, 2016.
Wordplay was a unique opportunity to take a look at part of the one-of-a-kind collection Ricky Jay amassed, and it also revealed how much he knew about the amazing Artists, and people, it included.
Elias Back, Portrait of Matthias Buchinger Surrounded by Thirteen Vignettes, 1710, when Mr. Buchinger would have been about 36, showing him surrounded by 13 scenes of him displaying some of his remarkable skills. The bottom part of the sheet was left blank, Mr. Jay surmises so the Artist could inscribe and dedicate it. This work is “a promised and partial gift by Ricky Jay to The Met” in 2015.
Chief among them was Matthias Buchinger, one of the most astounding figures in the history of Western Art. Born in 1674 in Ansbach, Germany, without hands or lower legs, he stood all of 29 INCHES tall. Nonetheless, he went on to master an incredible range of skills. Surrounding a 1710 portrait of Matthias Buchinger by Elias Back, when he would have been about 36, are vignettes depicting him displaying some of his remarkable skills including shaving himself, making a quill pen, performing cups and balls, drawing, threading a needle, playing musical instruments, playing cards, and a form of bowling.
Matthias Buchinger, Self-portrait, London, 1724, 7 1/2 x 11 5/8 inches. Collection of Ricky Jay. Photo by The Met.
In the realm of Art, Matthias Buchinger became a master draftsman, a master calligraphy.
Detail showing Mr. Buchinger’s amazing micrography, the miniature writing embedded in the hair. Photo by The Met.
This he also demonstrated (or showed off) through micrography, the art of writing in minute characters that he often embedded in his Drawings, even complete Psalms(!).
Matthias Buchinger, Ten Commandments, London, December 3, 1730, 14 1/2 x 21 inches, A “promised and partial gift of Ricky Jay” to The Met.
Being a long-time aficionado, and student of the Art of Drawing, I had never seen anything like it. And haven’t. To this day.
Detail of the lower panel bearing the Artist’s inscription and dating of the work.
Ricky Jay brought to wider attention one of the most remarkable figures in Western Art History (as it is known to me), while bringing that figure into the world of Fine Art in one of the world’s greatest museums, where his work stood alongside the most renowned Artists in history. Yet, the show was remarkable not only for showing Matthias Buchinger but for including other Artists who were born without limbs, all in works from Ricky Jay’s collection amassed over 30 years.
Unknown Artist, Portrait of Johanna Sophia Liebschern, 1780-90, states that “she has no arms but is able to use knife, fork, snd spoon with her left foot and feed herself, [and] is able to prettily write, sew, draw, cut a quill pen, load and shoot a pistol.” Collection of Ricky Jay.
*- Soundtrack for this Post is Tomorrow Never Dies, by Sheryl Crow, the theme from the James Bond movie of the same name, one of the 39 or so films Ricky Jay appeared in.
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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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