Roger Cardinal

In May 1977 the poet and filmmaker Victor Musgrove approached the Arts Council with the suggestion of mounting an exhibition of outsider art, or ‘what Dubuffet calls Art Brut’. Musgrove, who had recently helped artist Jean Dubuffet establish his museum dedicated to Art Brut in Lausanne, France, proposed ‘a large documented exhibition, including photographs and large objects, as well as paintings and drawings.’ Victor Musgrove and Roger Cardinal used Jean Dubuffet's definition of Art Brut as a starting point for their selection, but broadened and enlarged Dubuffet’s strict criteria. The press release for the exhibition stated that: ‘Outsider art is not a movement but in each case a highly personal creation of individuals of prodigious talent whose work and even existence is usually unknown to each other, and for the most part little known even to the “official” art world.’ For Cardinal and Musgrove, outsider artists were also defined by what they were not: ‘They are not naives or Sunday Painters … Nor do they produce “psychiatric” art via the intermediaryship of art as therapist.’
The exhibition featured drawings, paintings, sculpted wood, stuffed sculpture, mobile objects and large-scale architectural structures. Musgrove described the work in the exhibition as, by turns, ‘lyrical, powerful, delicate’ and ‘violent’. Among the works in the lower galleries – which had been painted black, orange and purple for the exhibition – were Chicago-based artist Henry Darger’s large-scale drawings of a fantasy war between child-slaves and adults, led by seven teenage sisters.… (más)

This was the earliest of the bks I've read on this subject &, as such, one dear to me. I reckon it's still a debate as to wch term is most appropriate to describe such work & the people who produce it. Visionary? Folk? Outsider? Insane? Whatever. Hopefully, no single term will ever dominate - let's avoid the over-simplification, shall we? This bk exposed me to all sorts of interesting folks like Adolph Wölffli, Clarence Schmidt, Heinrich Anton Müller, Augustin Lesage, August Neter, The Abbé Fouéré, etc.. For those of us who know that we're just staying one step ahead of the dreaded NORMALIZATION JUGGERNAUT OF INDIVIDUALIST PERSONALITY DESTRUCTION in our precipitous tight-rope walk above the dreaded abyss of the sickeningly congealed masses, the tales about & images from such folks is much-needed relief from the well 'nigh omnipresent Pavlovian advertising image spewing monster of Mammon. So there.… (más)

Even after many years this volume remains a beloved browse book and I find myself returning to favorite sections every few years. These include Raymond Isidore's mosaic, Heinrich Muller's line drawings, the Clarence Schmidt house (which I believe was on the original dust jacket), and more. Technical details: My copy has no ISBN listed, and the publisher is Praeger Publishers (New York). The copyright, 19972, is held by Studio Vista (London), but they are not the publisher. I recall seeing the original dust jacket years ago, but it didn't come with the hardcover copy I obtained from a library discard!… (más)