First published: Spring 2004
Over the last ten years or so an array of sumptuously illustrated books and blockbuster museum exhibitions devoted to the work of self-taught artists have signaled what is apparently a growing consensus about the ‘master’ status of perhaps 50 to 100 artists – individuals whose work is widely deemed worthy of special attention and honour, not to mention handsome prices.
Applying special criteria and dispensing aesthetic validation is, of course, simply what an art system does. But in the still relatively small world of institutionalised Outsider Art connoisseurship and scholarship, those charged with advancing this process sometimes seem unable to see beyond what has been obvious and accepted within the field for 30 years.
This is an article extract; read the full article in Raw Vision #46
