Outsider art

Art Brut, Raw Art, Outsider Art and Naive Art are terms used to describe a kind of art making that has often fallen between the cracks of formal, educated art school art. Jean Dubuffet (who is responsible for bringing this art into the public forum) describes Art Brut in an essay entitled l’art brut prefere aux culturels, as “ works of every kind- Drawings, paintings, embroideries, carved or modelled figures, etc.- presenting a spontaneous, highly inventive character, as little beholden as possible to the ordinary run of art or to cultural conventions, the makers of them being obscure persons foreign to professional art circles. We mean by this the works executed by people untouched by artistic culture, works in which imitation- has little or no part, so that their makers derive everything (subjects, choice of materials used, means of transposition, rhythms, ways of patterning, etc.) from their own resources and not from the conventions of classic art or the art that happens to be fashionable”(32).
As part of my own artistic history, it may be worth mentioning here that I was an instructor at a disability art program for two years. While I was working in that position I gained first hand experience of the creative processes of people with disabilities. I already had an interest in Outsider Art, so the opportunity to experience the work being made was fascinating. The automatic and instinctual marks made by these artists, and the compulsive intent they expended was inspirational. As an artist myself I try to incorporate these making processes into my own work. In watching these artists with disabilities approach and make their work I discovered that often there was not a lot of introspective criticism. Often an artist would repeat the same motif over and over to create a repetitive pattern or fill a whole book with drawings or collaged pictures. The final outcome was not a consideration at the beginning of the process. After being at art school for four years this approach to making was liberating.
“ …The paintings created by untrained artists whose position in society was often obscure and humble suggested to many an innocence and a spontaneity in refreshing contrast to the works produced by painters inculcated with formal techniques”(33).
“ As for madness, the surrealists saw it as a creative rather than a destructive condition, something more positive than negative.”(34)