# outsider art



## the misanthrope (Aug 22, 2016)

what do you think about the term outsider art?


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## Mel_Robertson (Feb 23, 2016)

the misanthrope said:


> what do you think about the term outsider art?


I had to search the definition & when I read it I laughed "art produced by untrained artists, for example children or mentally ill people."
I'm still bemused as to what it means?
I think who ever thought up the term outsider art must have seen themselves on the inside of something but I'm not sure what
EDIT:
after digging a little deeper into the definition it turns out the term was only created in 1972 by art critic Roger Cardinal & it reads...
" art created outside the boundaries of official culture "
so this Roger person decided he & only he had the power to choose whats in the boundaries of "official art" 
he was obviously unsure of his own art so much he had to compare it to children & mentally ill people to make himself feel better, what a brobdingnagian twat


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## Desdichado (May 26, 2016)

Outsider Art? Painting "a pleain aire (or al aire libre)" as opposed to sitting at a table/easel inside?

Being totally affected by trends and wannabe world changers I'm quite happy to ignore nonesense. "Idiot" is a derogatory term that used to refer to mentally challenged people that life and nature had made bad calls for.. It's far better applied to those who profess intelligence yet don't show any.


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## the misanthrope (Aug 22, 2016)

I always thought the term, like most terms in art completely arbitrary. all art is generated by the same impulse.


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## Desdichado (May 26, 2016)

I wrote: " Being totally affected by trends and wannabe world changers " and should have written being "unaffected". My error, sorry.


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## the misanthrope (Aug 22, 2016)

Outsider art is all the trend right now. While I find the term rather silly, the public interest has brought to light a lot of talented artists who would of otherwise have been ignored. Martin Ramirez is one such example, he spent his whole adult life in an institution, and James Castle who was deaf and mute. Both sadly are deceased. There is one very talented Japanese artist named Hiroyuki Doi who dose these wonderful abstract drawings on washi paper, some are quite large, all very impressive.


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## just (Mar 3, 2015)

I prefer to color inside the lines.


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## Desdichado (May 26, 2016)

the misanthrope said:


> Outsider art is all the trend right now. While I find the term rather silly, the public interest has brought to light a lot of talented artists who would of otherwise have been ignored. Martin Ramirez is one such example, he spent his whole adult life in an institution, and James Castle who was deaf and mute. Both sadly are deceased. There is one very talented Japanese artist named Hiroyuki Doi who dose these wonderful abstract drawings on washi paper, some are quite large, all very impressive.


Sorry, but I'm at odds with this whole thing. Public interest in what, exactly? Would any of those you mention wish to be recognised for their art contributions or the fact that they are special cases because they have disabilities,and is their art value any less because they are made out as different cases? Why would their work be ignored? The term I find silly is "trend". That's surely a relation to art appreciators and the buying public rather than artists, and if such a trend has to be based on mentally/physically challenged standards then art surely has nothing to do with it. I'm not normally rude, but there are some real balloon heads out their in our so-called caring/sharing society.


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## the misanthrope (Aug 22, 2016)

Desdichado said:


> Sorry, but I'm at odds with this whole thing. Public interest in what, exactly? Would any of those you mention wish to be recognised for their art contributions or the fact that they are special cases because they have disabilities,and is their art value any less because they are made out as different cases? Why would their work be ignored? The term I find silly is "trend". That's surely a relation to art appreciators and the buying public rather than artists, and if such a trend has to be based on mentally/physically challenged standards then art surely has nothing to do with it. I'm not normally rude, but there are some real balloon heads out their in our so-called caring/sharing society.


 public interest in the art of the disabled I guess. I doubt that the people I mentioned even cared if their art was seen, let alone appreciated. The artists I mentioned in my posts created art out of a inner compulsion, not out of any desire for fame. Most never even showed their work to any body, and the work was only discovered after their death. By trend I mean the buying public, who for what ever sick reason have latched on to this body of work. Maybe they are attracted to the tragic stories that often surround this group of artists, or their compulsion to cheer for the underdog.


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## Eddieblz (Jun 15, 2013)

The genesis of Outsider Art could well be traced to an imagined prehistoric cave wall, to the work of your favorite eccentric visionary (think William Blake), or to the mythic artist-genius dreamed up by Romantic philosophers and poets. Outsider Artists began to emerge as a force to be reckoned with during the early 1920's, with the publication of two pioneering studies of art made on asylum inmates, conducted by European psychiatrists in search of universal truths about human creativity.

German Expressionists soon fell in love with the schizophrenic artists presented in these books--especially Adolf Wölfli, Karl Brendel and August Naterrer--and adopted them as creative muses by appropriating their imagery. In Paris, the Surrealists looked to the same books for inspiration, and also to Spiritualist Mediums such as Augustin Lesage and Helene Smith who were famous local practitioners of automatic drawing.

It wasn't until after World War II that Outsider Art was truly recognized as more than simply source material for the modernist avant-garde. The French artist Jean Dubuffet took the Surrealist obsession with Outsiders to a new level by daring to collect and exhibit their work. Not only did he champion the artwork of schizophrenics and local mediums, but he also celebrated art made by eccentric isolates and self-taught laborers. Dubuffet recognized in the work of these divergent groups one unifying trait: a raw quality untouched by academic rules or current trends.

In 1947, Dubuffet staged a ground-breaking, manifesto-driven exhibition in Paris, aptly naming his category art brut (Raw Art). Dubuffet's Collection de l'Art Brut grew in the subsequent decades, and eventually found a home in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1976. This unique collection might well have remained in isolation, if not for the publication of a 1972 study of art brut entitled Outsider Art written by the British scholar Roger Cardinal. Cardinal's book, and his 1979 London exhibition Outsiders, launched Outsider Art as a powerful global force that continues to challenge and redefine the limits of what we call art.

Here's a nice link,
http://www.outsiderartfair.com/outsider_art


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## abt2k15 (Jan 9, 2016)

> We understand by this term works produced by persons unscathed by artistic culture, where mimicry plays little or no part (contrary to the activities of intellectuals)


so basically it can only be done by isolated mentally ill people?! if you think about it - its a paradox. 

if you look up the very definition of artistic culture you will get the definition of "The Arts" ( imagine dramatic chipmunk meme sound at this part )



> The arts represent an outlet of expression, that is usually influenced by culture and which in turn helps to change culture. As such, the arts are a physical manifestation of the internal creative impulse.


so while "culture" may be far fetched for an asylum environment but yeah it has its rituals and all that you could consider it as that. even if not - the moment the mentally ill decides to draw he/she will affect the environment. change the rituals ( caretakers will provide materials for art which they didnt do before most likely ). hence the first phrase of the definition of outsider art cannot be fullfilled and if only once in a lifetime.

does not make sense to me but interesting to think about


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