Deaf Art

Art in its broadest sense encompasses the visual arts and literature, music, dance, theater, and film. In these myriad forms, art both creates and transmits culture. As with the arts of other marginalized cultures that overlap with the dominant culture, the arts of Deaf culture have existed sometimes parallel to those of the dominant culture and sometimes integrated into the arts of the larger culture. Although Deaf artists have sometimes chosen theater and film, and more recently music and dance, as their mode of expression, the visual arts and literature are the two art forms with the longest history in the Deaf community. Visual art makes available a means of communication to those who are isolated, for many reasons, from the dominant culture. For all of these reasons, there has always been visual art created by Deaf artists. There is also a long history of Deaf literature. Deaf literature may include fiction about Deaf characters by hearing authors or works in any literary genre in English created by Deaf writers, or it may be limited to works transmitted through American Sign Language (ASL). Regardless of the definition, Deaf culture has a rich tradition in the literary arts.

The earliest Deaf artists in American history lived at a time when the Deaf led cloistered lives and, indeed, were often viewed by the larger world as mentally deficient and incapable of intelligent communication. Yet in such conditions, artists such as John Brewster and William Mercer thrived. With the founding of the Connecticut Asylum for the Education of Deaf and Dumb Persons (later the American School for the Deaf) by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc in 1817, the education of the Deaf entered a new era, but in the 19th century, as in the 21st, the Deaf community included not only those born deaf and deaf from early childhood but also those who lost their hearing as adults. Some of the best-known artists of the period belonged to the latter group, and others were associated with the California School for the Deaf. The 20th century saw greater diversity in genre and experience among Deaf artists, and in the last decade of the century, the De’VIA movement with its emphasis on Deaf art as an expression of Deaf experience began. It continued to be a major factor in Deaf art in the early decades of the 21st century.