..How strange it is. A society that demands a resume summarizing the formal education and professional training of everyone seeking entry into its work force, has decided somehow that it will esteem its artists precisely for their lack of such credentials. The fashionable artist today is 'self-taught.' In fact, 'un-taught' is preferred. Everyone is talking about self-taught/outsider artists. Make it clear, we are not just continuing the old conversation about naive and folk art here. We are looking at a new and wider conversation in the contemporary fine art scene. What we are finding is a shift of the old paradigm in which art was presumed to mirror a culture's collective life. This traditional model is being replaced by one in which art is expected to negate cultural experience via a celebration of the personal experience of its maker -- a creator whose credibility as an artist is directly tied to his or her isolation from cultural life of any sort.
Thus, the peculiar scenario in which dealers promoting new artists all across America have been overheard assuring collectors that even though a certain talent being showcased in their gallery did study at Yale (or the Art Institute of Chicago -- or wherever) this 'academic' exposure had no effect whatsoever on the artist's creative development. Somehow (despite his or her degree certification) the newcomer is represented as immune to the taint of pedagogy -- a true artist following a 'private vision' -- a self-taught OUTSIDER. How, exactly, does this work?...and how did we get here?
This unique book presents works that until now have only been seen in private collections or museum vaults. Works by well known outsider artists and new discoveries express their personal interpretations of sexual desire and activity.
Now available as a downloadable PDF!
$10 | £7 | €10
Downloadable PDF version of the "Texts, Time and Listings" section of the Outsider Art Sourcebook featuring key texts, timeline and bibliography on Outsider Art as well as listings for Galleries, Studios, Websites & Organizations.
$10 | £7 | €10
Downloadable PDF version of the Environment section of the Outsider Art Sourcebook featuring 60 visionary environments from around the world. PREVIEW HERE
$15 | £10 | €15
This is a downloadable (PDF) version of the large Artists section of our renowned Outsider Art Sourcebook. Nearly 200 artists - fully responsive - biographies, references, images