Representing the Estate of Merton Clivette
Gallery opens exhibit of art by Merton Clivette.
The exhibit is the first major show in 100 years of works by Merton Clivette. (photo courtesy of the Denenberg Gallery)
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Merton Clivette once dominated the 1920s and 1930s art world. He ruled the Orpheum Circuit as a magician, shadowgraphist, mindreader, and acrobat. He performed in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. Clivette worked with Houdini and PT Barnum, and he inspired Mark Twain. He taught Sir Arthur Conan Doyle how to be a medium. He went by names such as Clivette the Great, The Man in Black, The Mysterious Stranger, and many others. Clivette led a remarkable life then, like the magician he was, he disappeared from the history books after his death in 1931.
This new biography seeks to rectify that.
Michael MacBride has collaborated with the Clivette Estate to reintroduce the Great Clivette to the world. Using Clivette’s journals, letters, and books he wrote during his lifetime, the new book—The Great Clivette—tells the full story of Clivette’s life for the first time using Clivette’s own voice. It is an adventure you won’t want to miss.
“The spiritual truth of the moving form is a changing mass of light, reflection, vibrating color – and life. Now when a form is moving – like a fish, for example – you cannot give the vibration of light on that form by adhering to a line to produce the fish.”