“UNCOLLLECTED illustrates the variety of artworks that a little-known master artist produced over the years. Most have appeared in scattered places but have never been collected in one place — thus the title. Mustill’s have not only been uncollected; they haven’t been seen by any but a few devotees, certainly not by art collectors. None of this is an accident. Mustill declined to play the “art game.” He shunned publicity and guarded his privacy at any cost. Less curmudgeon than extreme dissenter, he resembled William S. Burroughs in this respect: Nothing pleased him more than reaming out the human race. His compositions stop you dead with their viciousness, not to mention their technical perfection and satirical intent. Which isn’t to say he lacked a lightness of touch. He could lower the boom playfully when he liked. Consider the “O” in Norman O. Mustill. It stood for “Ogue,” the middle name he took from the fashion magazine Vogue as a single-word manifesto against everything fashionable: Vogue – V = Ogue. If you were lucky enough to know him personally, as I did over many years, you’d find yourself chortling amid gales of laughter. He loved to entertain his friends by taking note of the world’s solemnities and making exquisite fun of them. It was a supreme delight.”
— Jan Herman
