The boundaries of Outsider Art have been blurred since writer and
art historian Roger Cardinal introduced the term in 1972, with a book
of the same name. The most widely accepted criteria, upon which this
pathfinder is based, are as follows:
- The artists are ignorant of artistic traditions, lack professional
training, and have no interest in infiltrating the professional
art world. They create from an inner need rather than for an outside
audience.
- Their art stems from personal visions rather than family or
cultural traditions.
- They often work in isolation and live outside mainstream society
(mental patients, recluses, eccentrics).
More Information
The majority of the artists included in these resources are either
mental patients and recluses (examples: Adolf
Wolfli and Henry
Darger) or creators of folk art environments, large three-dimensional
spaces transformed into works of art (examples:
Robert Tatin's Frenouse in France and Watts
Towers in Los Angeles).
The term Art Brut (French for "raw art") has become synonymous
with Outsider Art, though it was originally reserved for works in
the seminal collection of artist, collector and scholar Jean Dubuffet.
He coined the term in 1945 in reference to works created by psychiatric
patients and housed today in the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne,
Switzerland. Several sources listed in this pathfinder refer to
Art Brut in their titles or content.
For the purposes of this pathfinder, Outsider Art does not include
"folk art" in general, which often refers to works based
on local tradition or craft art. However, some reference sources
include folk art, as no more specific sources are available.
For those interested in a more explicit definition or a comparison
of synonyms (outsider art, art brut, visionary art, folk art), definitions
from primary resources have been included here.
All sources are discussed in the Online Resources
section.
|