Outsider Art
I like to consider myself an outsider artist. Belonging to that lineage which reemerged somewhere in the mid 20th century in Europe with the art brut movement. Thanks to Jean duBuffet and countless inmates of asylums and various self taught visionaries. Related like a skipping stone to such innovative movements as the primitives, avant gard, neuve invention, folk art etc. the outsider artist has “legitimated an approach concerned not just with the artifacts proper but also with the creative activity which underlies their formation and in turn, unabashedly, with the mental and social, (and ‘I might add the spiritual’ gp) context out of which the creative impulse emerges in the first place.” *
There is for me as well a visceral aspect to this expression, beyond thought just an instinctive impulse to make, to do, to paint and see what happens. There are moments when even such illuminates as Picasso, Du Champs, Karl Apel, Tapies, Cy Tomby, Klee and others touched upon these thresholds but did not remain long. Their utilization has helped to develop a mindset around outsider art which slowly has promoted its validation in an ever competitive and often critical art world.
Many people look quite puzzled when an inquiry arises around outsider art. Perhaps this has a positive twist in that there’s room to plant a seed outside of the box common to us all of a perception limited by cultural exposure/education or circumstance. Finding an interest in that which, by definition, is outside in itself is a challenge. There is also that aspect to the art itself. A double entrant. If art is to remain other than entertainment for the senses
or heritage we are challenged to a receptivity to that which understanding may be less obvious than is comfortable. Yet so often we are drawn in to that very something which is visceral, belly centered, instinctive and we respond from our own mirror placed echo. There’s a possibility that these one of a kind expressions have a universal appeal thus proposing a paradox within the art of outsider art, and the inherent challenge therein.
Atelier/ gp June. 2023
* Roger Cardinal. The Artist Outsider. Pg. 24 /p 2.