Editing Joseph Yoakum (section)

==Artistic work==
[[File:Artwork by Joseph E. Yoakum.jpg|thumb|One of Yoakum's drawings|260x260px]]Yoakum was again living and painting in Chicago by 1962. Tom Brand, owner of Galaxy Press on the south side of Chicago, in 1968 had some printing to deliver to a coffee shop called "The Whole". While there he noticed the colored pencil drawings of Yoakum and was immediately taken by them. Brand had an account with the Ed Sherbyn Gallery on the north side of Chicago, and he persuaded Sherbyn to exhibit Yoakum's works and even printed his own poster for this show. Norman Mark of ''[[Chicago Daily News|The Chicago Daily News]]'' wrote an article about Yoakum called "My drawings are a spiritual unfoldment"; this article was printed on the back of the poster. Brand informed his artist friends (including [[Whitney Halstead]]) about Yoakum and encouraged them to visit "The Whole" coffee shop. Halstead, an artist and instructor at the [[School of the Art Institute of Chicago]], became the greatest promoter of Yoakum's work during his lifetime. He believed that his story was "more invention than reality... in part myth, Yoakum's life as he would have wished to have lived it."<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Depasse|first=Derrel B.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4otJY4P1bJoC|title=Traveling the Rainbow: The Life and Art of Joseph E. Yoakum|publisher=University Press of Mississippi; [[Museum of American Folk Art]]|year=2001|isbn=1-57806-248-9|pages=3, 9, 11}}</ref>

In 1967, Yoakum was discovered by the mainstream art community through John Hopgood, an instructor at the [[Chicago State College]], who saw Yoakum's work hanging in his studio window and purchased twenty-two pictures. A group of students including [[Roger Brown (artist)|Roger Brown]], [[Gladys Nilsson]], [[Jim Nutt]], and [[Barbara Rossi (artist)|Barbara Rossi]], and teachers at the School of the [[Art Institute of Chicago]], including [[Ray Yoshida]] and [[Whitney Halstead]], took an interest in promoting his work. In 1972, just one month before his death, Yoakum was given a one-man show at the [[Whitney Museum]] in New York City.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1995-02-03|title='Outsider' Artist, And His Art, Still A Mystery|language=en|work=Chicago Tribune|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1995/02/03/outsider-artist-and-his-art-still-a-mystery/|access-date=2017-09-21}}</ref>

He started drawing familiar places, such as ''Green Valley Ashville Kentucky'', as a method to capture his memories. However, he shifted towards imaginary landscapes in places he had never visited, like ''Mt Cloubelle of West India'' or ''Mt Mowbullan in Dividing Range near Brisbane Australia''. Drawing outlines with ballpoint pen, rarely making corrections, he colored his drawings within the lines using watercolors and pastels. He became known for his organic forms, always using two lines to designate land masses.

During the final four months of his life Yoakum's work was marked by a use of pure abstraction, as in his illustration ''Flooding of Sock River through Ash Grove Mo [Missouri] on July 4, 1914 in that [waters] drove many persons from Homes I were with the Groupe {{sic|leiving}} their homes for safety''. That painting was one of his autobiographical works.

In 2018–19 Yoakum's work was included in the exhibition ''Outliers and American Vanguard Art'' at the National Gallery of Art, High Museum of Art, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Outliers and American Vanguard Artist Biographies |url=https://www.nga.gov/features/exhibitions/outliers-and-american-vanguard-artist-biographies.html |access-date=2023-02-09 |website=www.nga.gov}}</ref> Following this event, Venus Over Manhattan presented an exhibition featuring more than sixty works on paper, which constituted the largest collection of Yoakum’s art assembled in New York since 1972.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Saltz |first=Jerry |date=2019-07-15 |title=Why Did It Take So Long for the World to Recognize the Genius of Joseph Yoakum? |url=https://www.vulture.com/2019/07/joseph-elmer-yoakum-venus-over-manhattan.html |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=Vulture |language=en}}</ref> In 2021, the [[Museum of Modern Art]] presented more than 100 of his works in an exhibition called ''Joseph E. Yoakum: What I Saw.''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Joseph E. Yoakum: What I Saw|url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5320|access-date=2021-12-27|website=The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)|language=en}}</ref> It was organized by the [[Art Institute of Chicago]], the Museum of Modern Art, and the Menil Drawing Institute, which is part of the [[Menil Collection]].<ref name="Heinrich"/> His work is represented in the National Gallery of Art, among other institutions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Artist Info |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.46122.html |access-date=2023-02-09 |website=www.nga.gov}}</ref>