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Heard an interesting story on NPR for all the Outsider Art Aficionados, pretty cool story about an outsider art gallery in chicago and its artists, one was a trash picker? shut the front door!
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/04/11/outsider-art-chicago
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Sharyn,
*For me*, the key to something being outsider art is that the art skills are self-taught, so you’re *mostly* not going to see anything that requires amazing (traditional) painting technique like this (traditional fine art) painting does:
https://www.mireilleduchesne.com/portraits/sm9uhmxv5f0zqp1l9yvtx156mlc50c -
Henry Darger- Vivian Girls- Outsider Art.
Paula Rego- Vivian Girls- Not Outsider Art.Don’t know. I get to see probably 30 to 50 “works of art” every week at Arthur Johnson’s in Nottingham, and although I see plenty of crap art I can’t remember seeing anything I’d class as “outsider art”. So maybe there’s a matrix- on one dimension “wackiness”, on another “closeness to the art establishment”. If your art’s really wacky and the art establishment think you’ve got communicable skin diseases, then you’re an outsider artist.
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Thank you for bringing up the subject, BigSally. Woah there, AntiqueFrog. I hope I can shed some light on the subject. Sonia, thanks for sharing those links. You are correct, the naive artist is self taught.
I used to teach art to pre-schoolers-8th graders, and some of the pre-scholers art was truly the best (I am being sincere). The pre-schoolers had no sense of what is “expected”, i.e., line, shape, form, color schemes. For intuitive artists, the same is true. I have quite the catalog of photos of their art, some day when I figure out how to organize the works, I will share.
For me, my understanding of “outsider art” or “naive art” is that for the most part, the artist starts out using common, everyday materials to create what they deem as art. They are not researching, studying, or using more conventional materials (paint, brush, canvas, etc). Many times, the artist is using the process as an outlet for personal trauma, or as a release from their environment. Outsiders use their intuition, and go with what they have readily available to them at that time.
Another interesting aspect of intuitive or outsider art is that the artist falls into one of two categories. The artist who is reclusive, is a loner, and not very well known/liked/accepted by the masses. Then there is the artist who is more sociable, outgoing, and well liked. In many cases, the intuitive artist sells their art themselves and either does not want to go to a gallery because they feel exploited, or does not go because they lack the desire/skills to get out and approach a gallery.
I feel this is my forte. I truly enjoy the naive art world/works. If anyone has any info on the subject, please do share!
Chicago has a rich history of outsider/naive/intuitive artists. If you have the interest, please click on these links.
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And in case any one is interested…ebay has 2 art works of the artists I sent links to and one book about Henry Darger.
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I once knew a naive artist. He made a number of oil paintings, and got a friend to photograph them. The prints were submitted to a gallery, who agreed to mount an exhibition.
Unfortunately the small size of the photos disguised the nature of the art, which was bleak and depressing. On opening night the invited guests huddled in the middle of the gallery, with their backs to the paintings, trying to avoid looking at the damn things.
After the exhibition closed the artist abandoned his art, left town and became a traffic warden in London. I dumped the paintings, except for one of a seagull flying over some grey sludge. Eventually that went in the bin as well.
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Antique Frog-no, say it isn’t so! 😀 There is a cult following for “depressing”art aka “dark art”, or macabre. There is a market for that. Think Tim Burton, Edward Gorey, Edvard Munch. If anyone out there doesn’t want their “ugly”, “dark”, or any art-send it my way! Thanks for sharing your story.
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