Outsider Art

The term outsider art is credited to art critic Roger Cardinal, who in 1972 used it as the English equivalent of art brut, a term used by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe the rough (brut) art created by inmates in insane asylums. Dr. Morganthlaer, a Swiss psychiatrist, had documented the vast artistic output of one of his patients, Adolf Wölfli, who had spent most of his adult life in a psychiatric hospital in Switzerland. He was the first well-known outsider artist. His works included drawings, writing, and music. Bildnerei der Geisteskranken (Artistry of the Mentally Ill) by Dr. Hans Prinzhorn was published in 1922. The volume documented a massive amount of work by psychiatric patients and became influential with surrealist and other artists of the time.

Outsider art refers more generally to art that is outside the mainstream art world, usually self-taught, and often using materials and techniques in unconventional ways. Some champions of outsider art style caution, however, that the term should not apply to all untrained artists, as is sometimes done. Dubuffet saw art brut as art that was created outside the mainstream culture by artists who were themselves outside the [Page 1070]mainstream culture, such as the insane and others who are marginalized by society. Folk art, primitive art, prison art, African coffin carving, Haitian murals, Australian Aboriginal painting, and others have also been given the name outside art.

Some other types of art that fall within the outsider art category are neue Invention, folk art, visionary art, and naïve art. Neue Invention, another term coined by Dubuffet, refers to artists who are part of the mainstream art culture but are on its margin. Folk art generally refers to traditional crafts and skills, especially those based in peasant traditions. Visionary art has been used as a general term for outsider art, but it more specifically refers to images of a spiritual or religious nature. Naïve art refers to untrained artists who are attempting to be part of the mainstream art world.

Some of the more well-known outsider artists are Henry Darger, Madge McGill, Alexandre Lobanov, Martin Ramírez, Achilles Rizolli, and Adolf Wölfli.

Henry Darger, an American who had been institutionalized as a child, created a 15-volume text that contained hundreds of illustrations portraying violently slaughtered women and scenes that combine images from the Civil War with fanciful monsters.

Madge McGill from England created thousands of drawings that she said were guided by a spirit called Myrninerest (my inner rest).

Alexandre Lobanov was a Russian who was deaf and autistic. His work includes detailed and self-aggrandizing self-portraits, as well as frequent imagery of large guns.

Martin Ramírez was a Mexican with paranoid schizophrenia, who spent most of his adult life in a mental hospital in California. His work represented a mixture of trains and Mexican folk figures. Achilles Rizzoli, an architectural draftsman, is best known for representations of his mother as a neo-baroque building.