The Libra Patriarch Prophet Lord Archbishop Apostle Visionary Mystic Psychic Saint Royal Robertson

Untitled work that's featured in the album art for Sufjan Stevens' The Age of Adz

I don't think we've done any posts about any artists working in purely visual media, so lemme give it a shot and introduce you to Prophet Royal Robertson.


First off, let me make sure you don't try to read this as a review. This guy was one of those people that you could never ever figure out, especially with never having met him and only learning about him from various internet sources. So if i ever tried to review his work, it would inevitably be wrong.

So the story of Royal Robertson is an interesting one. He was born in Louisiana and apprenticed as a sign painter in his late teens. To make a very long and sorrowful story short, he married Adell Brent in 1955 and had 11 children with her. After 19 years of marriage, Adell left Royal for another man, taking all 11 children with her and her new man to Texas.
When his marriage ended, Royal shrank into a reclusive existence and developed paranoid schizophrenia. He began recording visions that he had which he said were given to him by God. He claimed that he received the first one when he was merely 14 years old, in which God appeared to him flying a space ship. Once his marriage ended, he began recording his visions in his art, often depicting futuristic scenes foretelling the end of days.

Royal was obsessed about the End of Days and the Book of Revelation. His works were very often accompanied by misogynistic rants against his ex-wife Adell and women in general, claiming them to be "whores" and "adulteresses". His visions in which aliens warned against the dangers of adultery and sex made Royal believe that there was a global female conspiracy and that Adell's betrayal would ultimately lead to the end of the world.

Royal also developed a belief that he was a prophet sent to lead a new Zion. He often signed his art with any combination of parts of the title "Libra Patriarch Prophet Lord Archbishop Apostle Visionary Mystic Psychic Saint Royal Robertson".

As an impoverished, self-taught artist, Royal's main media were magic markers, colored pencil, tempura paint and glitter on wood, paper, or poster board. His style was very much his own, though it sometimes drew very heavily from comic book style drawing. His main recurring themes were the Book of Revelation and other biblical references, aliens, futuristic landscapes and vehicles, and the treachery of "adulterous whores" and infidel spouses. His home was decorated with many signs warning off "whores" and "bastards" and denouncing the name of his ex-wife. The interior of his house was covered with his art. Most of it depicted Adell and he even had several shrines devoted to her.

Though apparently scorned by his neighbors, Royal retained friends and visitors said he was a very friendly man. His art is held in many private collections as well as in the Smithsonian American Art Museum and other major art museums. His art is also featured in the cover and interior art of Sufjan Stevens' 2010 release The Age of Adz. He is also featured in a documentary about 4 self-taught fringe folk artist that will be released this summer.

I don't know about you guys, but I would have really liked to have met Royal Robertson before he died. I also would really like to own a piece of his art. He never had any formal education in art and was constantly in a state of poverty, so his work is obviously not of the best quality. But, it so perfectly captures a tortured, maddened soul. Besides, who knows? Maybe he's right. Perhaps women will be the death of us all.

-The Surveyor