Tag: outsider art

Brian Gibson: Real Art… Really?

Above image: Transient Graffiti on Bath Abbey (courtesy of http://www.suitedandbooted.org)

Brian Gibson: “It’s 2015 now and after recent events the world seems a lot more complex … so I’m heading back to the relative calm of late 2014. Like a lot of people over the festive break I got myself hooked into various forms of social media, reaching saturation point – bloated with meaningful and quirky distractions offering opinions on this that and the other, making me feel futile in the ever-expanding and absorbing world of news feeds and interesting information. I was, however, able to break away from such infectious technology and get back on track, find my bearings and find some time to make a little bit of artwork, engage in some art dialogue and do a bit of offline viewing, that is to say look at some art situated in the real world.

Image from the Transient Graffiti project

It was early December, when listening to the radio, I heard a series of broadcasts on Radio 4’s A Point of View by Philosopher Roger Scruton. Someone that I had not heard of but assumed he must be quite learned and well informed to get such a slot. He began with the subject of ‘fake art’ and, as I’ve had a number of conversations with people on the possibility of faking Outsider Art, I thought that this series would be interesting.

His intent from the start was to clear some ground between what he sees as ‘original art’ that is genuine, sincere and truthful, but difficult to achieve, and the much easier ‘fake art’ that appeals to many critics today. His ire was directed towards the slick world of Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst and the art market that supports them. Cries of the emperor’s new clothes ensued – easy targets, I thought, why mention them now? Ok, they may well represent a particular brand of slick and successful art that looks like a product rather than anything hand made but any real significance either of these two monoliths had in the art world was decades ago. But this high-end financial world is so alien to me and those I know, that I cannot think of a single person who really cares that much about this type of work or what these artists are up to. The likes of Koons and Hirst are really not that important in the world of art that I and many other creative people inhabit. Sure, they are incredibly wealthy but they are old news.

Image from Transient Graffiti project

Next Scruton, in a sweeping gesture, guns for the faceless bureaucrats of the Arts Council who, he implies, fund only that which is unpopular with the public and is therefore arcane, excruciating and meaningless. I find this both insulting and a little disturbing as the Arts Council also funds a number of arts projects for historically marginalised communities who would remain hidden without their support. I have personally been involved in a number of projects, including Transient Grafitti, an animation created by Deaf Adults With Additional Needs, which was projected onto the face of Bath Abbey with additional artwork displayed inside Baths 44AD Gallery. A bringing together various organisations including Action On Hearing Loss and Suited and Booted Studios CLC, this project provided opportunities for a range of creative people to work with each other, developing ideas; going out into the community; being taken seriously; making it happen and showing it to the public who loved it. This would never have happened without their support. It does make me wonder what such an apparently erudite and influential thinker makes of Outsider art? Who knows? Despite listening to all three broadcasts I never get to find out. He does mention in his final broadcast that ‘real art’ (as opposed to ‘fake art’) has to have lasting appeal with three essential factors: beauty, form and redemption. I do not dispute the value of such qualities but they are not the only ingredients that make art real, tangible and meaningful. In the end I found his views quite narrow and patronising, the all-knowing expert dispensing his wisdom to the great unwashed telling us what real art is …really?”

Post by Brian Gibson

February 1, 2015
Artist in focus: Judy Shreve

Above image: Judy Shreve, Sanctuary

“I am a storyteller and had to learn to tell a story with paints instead of with words. It is my desire to express from a true place and create an emotional response to what I see. It’s not always realistic, because I see this world in an intuitive-abstract way. And it is the feeling that touches my heart that I want to portray in my work no matter what medium I am working with. Every mark I make is a combination of all my life experiences. Each piece contains a lifetime of aesthetic experience and interest for me, a successful piece is one that opens a heart and creates a smile.”

– Judy Shreve

Judy Shreve, Heading out of town for a little fun

Judy Shreve, Trouble in the hen house

Judy Shreve, Is he talking to me

Judy Shreve, Jumped off the merry go round

Judy Shreve, Why do I garden anyway

To see more of Judy’s work, please visit her website by clicking here

January 16, 2015
Outsider Art to see in 2015

First of all – Happy New Year everyone! As we welcome in 2015, here’s a brief list of a few of the must-see outsider art exhibitions taking place this year.

Judith Scott: Bound and Unbound

Brooklyn Museum, New York, US
Until 29 March 2015

Judith Scott, Untitled

This exhibition is the first comprehensive US survey of the work of Judith Scott and includes Judith’s three dimensional works as well as a selection of works on paper.

Click here for more information

Welcome to the World of Mr. Imagination

Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago, US
9 January – 25 April 2015

This is the first Chicago retrospective for Mr. Imagination; a celebrated outsider artist whose career spanned more than thirty years.

Click here for more information

Mary Barnes: Boo-Bah

The Nunnery, Bow Arts, London UK
16 January – 29 March 2015

Mary Barnes, courtesy of http://www.bowarts.org

This show will feature paintings and drawings by prolific outsider artist Mary Barnes. The works are predominantly from the collection of Dr Joseph Berke, her therapist and friend, and the exhibition will bring together works spanning her artistic career.

Click here for more information

New York Outsider Art Fair

Center 548, New York, US
29 January – 1 February 2015

The annual New York Outsider Art Fair showcases work by some of the most renowned outsider artists.

Click here for more information

Nek Chand

Pallant House Gallery, Chichester UK
Summer 2015

Nek Chand, photo from the Rock Garden in Chandigarh

Pallant House Gallery in Chichester will house some of Nek Chand’s famous figurative sculptures in their garden this summer.

Click here for more information

Paris Outsider Art Fair

4 Rue d’Artois, Paris, France
22 – 25 October 2015

Like the New York Outsider Art Fair, the Paris incarnation will similarly showcase work by renowned outsider artists.

Click here for more information

There will be more must-see outsider art exhibitions popping up throughout the year, so please do follow me on twitter: @kd_outsiderart for all the latest news, or check out the ‘Links’ page (by clicking here) to see what the organisations dedicated to showcasing outsider art are up to in 2015.

January 8, 2015
Creating the ‘Outsider’
Above image: ‘Wagenbach’s’ art at his home (Courtesy of canadianart.ca)

By complete accident, I stumbled across an article I read a few years back about identity, authenticity and autofiction in relation to outsider art. The piece is called ‘Fake Identity, Real Work: Authenticity, Autofiction, and Outsider Art’ and is by M. Kjellman-Chapin.

The essay focuses on several examples of ‘mainstream’ artists who have exploited the term ‘outsider’ for artistic purposes. It starts as you might expect an article focusing on outsider art to – with a description and contextualisation of the term. It then delves into the biographical histories of a selection of artists; their homes, their relationships. It describes their work; their style, their process, their medium. Then Kjellman-Chapin goes on to inform the reader that none of these ‘characters’ are real. They do not and have never existed in their own right. They are all the figment of various others’ imaginations.

Iris Haussler, an installation artist born in Germany and living in Canada, inhabits the minds and lives of a series of characters. The character that Kjellman-Chapin examines is Joseph Wagenbach, a long term resident of Robinson Street in Toronto, Canada. So private was Wagenbach, that he very rarely left his house. He took to covering his windows in newspaper to further maintain his privacy and was extremely estranged from his neighbours. But in June 2006, following a prolonged absence that was noted by various people in the neighbourhood, the authorities were called and Wagenbach was moved to a care facility. The discovery of hundreds of handmade creations in Wagenbach’s home following his removal, carefully rendered from wax and plaster, was enough to elicit the support of a committee of experts, including an archivist.

Iris Haussler with ‘Wagenbach’s’ work (Courtesy of http://www.thestar.com)

All of the handmade objects found in the house had been crafted by Haussler, as had the life of Wagenbach. An extension of the physical, tangible works ‘he’ created, Wagenbach was an art work in his own right, carefully constructed with a completely believable back story (there are many similarities between this and the story of the discovery of Henry Darger’s work). In a 2012 interview, Haussler said of her practice: “My characters are often underdogs, people who are developing obsessive work out of an inner need. When visitors come across their legacies, they notice that these people have dedicated their lives to something bigger in life. Observing that can be inspiring.” [1]

Another example of this character creation is the Spelvin Collection; dreamt up by Beauvais Lyons, professor of printmaking at the University of Tennessee. The Spelvin Collection, part of the Hokes Archives, was brought together by ‘hoax’ collectors George and Helen Spelvin. It contains works by a string of Lyons’ characters including President portrait maker Arthur Middleton, librarian Emma Whorley, jilted bride Charlotte Black, and a selection of religious tracts printed on cereal boxes by Max Pritchard.

Kjellman-Chapin explains the motive behind the dual-role creators and curators Haussler and Lyons: “Through works made by avatars, Haussler and Lyons can critique the orthodoxy of Outsider Art from the inside and reveal it to be itself an elaborate fabrication. Their projects are not simply exercises in faux histories; the layered fictions they have created function in a critical capacity.” [2] The practices of Haussler and Lyons are an incredible illustration of how we – the audience – define outsider art. All of the conjured artists quite neatly fit our evaluation of the outsider category. Their value is “located not in the plastic realities of the objects themselves, but in the capacity of the makers’ location in social space to wash over those objects and images and coat them in a taxonomically valued rhetoric of authenticity.” [3]

‘Arthur Middleton’, with his portraits of American Presidents (Courtesy of artoftheprank.com)

There is perhaps, I think, a lesson here in the recent rise in popularity of outsider art. The example of Haussler and Lyons illustrates the simplicity of creating a believable character whom we can easily (and correctly?) assume would fit even Dubuffet’s strict definition of Art Brut. The use of the term outsider artist is bandied around a considerable amount in Europe and the US at the moment, and there is concern amongst some people that ‘mainstream’ artists will ‘jump on the bandwagon.’ I don’t think Haussler and Lyons have jumped on such a bandwagon – after all, their art is a ‘three dimensional novel’; a whole narrative of these characters, the situations they are in, their thoughts, beliefs, and their experiences. I do wonder, however, why they chose ‘outsiders’ – “shut-ins, outsiders and hoarders with an artistic bent whose fears and obsessions compel their odd creations.” [4] I like to think it’s because they are able to experience true, uninhibited creativity this way, and conjuring up a character so different from themselves provides Haussler and Lyons, and us as the audience, the opportunity to understand more empathically what it might be like for the real Middletons, Horleys and Wagenbachs of the world.

Personally, I found myself fascinated by the work of Haussler and Lyons, but are they turning their characters into the art work? Are they instead exhibiting vulnerable people (regardless of their realness – or lack of it)? And what does this mean for real ‘outsider artists’? I would be interested to hear what you think about this one, so please let me know in the comments below.

References

[1] Artist Interview: Iris Haussler, Now Toronto

[2] Kjellman-Chapin, Fake Identity, Real Work, p153

[3] Kjellman-Chapin, Fake Identity, Real Work, p153

[4] Artist Interview: Iris Haussler, Now Toronto

Further information
December 8, 2014
Brian Gibson: Fessing Up
Featured image: Agnes Richter, needlepoint jacket [notmodernart.tumblr.com]

Following Brian Gibson’s fantastic previous post, entitled ‘What does it mean to be an Outsider?‘, he has written again for kdoutsiderart. This time, focusing on ‘confessional’ art. Here, her discusses whether artists who have experienced trauma or health issues feel ‘obliged’ to create art that is overtly confessional?

There are a lot of people (past and present) whom I really admire who have the ability to write down, draw and paint to reveal a deeply personal, integral part of themselves succinctly and often explicitly. I have the greatest respect for those people who have such courage, placing a personal account of a particular aspect of their life in the public realm. There are certain works that have completely stirred me emotionally: Frida Kahlo’s drawing of her miscarriage and a painting of an abusive relationship by an artist showing at the Outside In Exhibition at Pallant House Gallery and the Outside In: West exhibition at the Somerset Museum are but two.

When so much art of the modern era can be said to be autobiographical and increasingly stacked online into categories, is it wrong or demeaning to place such works into a genre defined as ‘confessional art’? I certainly don’t think that the two works which I have mentioned were specifically created to fit a market within a particular realm of art practice, even so, there are some artists such as Tracy Emin who seem to have made a very successful career out of ‘fessing up’.

Personally, I don’t know what to make of Tracy Emin anymore. She is now very much part of the art world establishment (I don’t begrudge her success), having evolved from what could be considered a quasi-outsider stance, in part due to the way in which she presents herself and her work, tapping into the psychoanalytic influenced work of Louise Bourgeois and such works from the Prinzhorn collection as Agnes Richter’s needlepoint jacket. Whatever one thinks of Ms Emin herself or her work, she seems to know how to profit from fessing up her past, whilst remaining in the driving seat. Likewise, the pianist James Rhodes has spoken openly about his experiences of abuse and mental health issues, he too seems to be in the driving seat, which to be honest is a pretty enviable position. Whilst this tack might work for some individuals, I am not so sure if this should be considered a creative formula for all those artists who have experienced mental health issues or trauma of some kind. Even so, it can be tempting to mis-read such paths to success, acceptance and acknowledgement as being primarily down to being completely open; revealing your trauma, displaying it in your artwork, and putting it in the public realm for all to see.

I fundamentally believe that people should not be silenced for what they have experienced. I have heard enough about people in glass houses and it being better to remain silent than be thought a fool. However, with the increase of social media platforms, I have noticed an increase in people telling their story because they can, but I wonder what happens after the rush of ‘likes’, when people find something new to share, does anything change significantly for the person concerned? There are some wonderful blogs out there with some incredibly powerful images; there are also other stories which I fear will go unheard and unseen. It takes a lot of courage to fess up, to speak out and say something but my concern is that a lot of confessional art will over time be reduced to the status of another form of ‘the selfie’.
- Click here for Brian’s website
- Click here to read Brian’s previous post
November 19, 2014
Nahum Shmushko

“I’m told that art-making heals.

I’m also told, that it opens up infected wounds, releasing the pressure.

Someone even told me, that art opens a window through which you can pop into your own soul.

Most probably, someone will even say that art can open a window for others to pop into your soul.

Well, the truth is, making art simply keeps me busy.”

– Nahum Shmushko

November 11, 2014
Process Vs. Product in Creative Practice

Recently, I have been considering the importance of process and product with reference to art making. Is the process of making the art the most important thing for the artist, or is there something equally as important in having this work shown to the public – whether this is an exhibition, a performance or a publication? Would some, perhaps, even say this public exposure is more important? I am talking in this post about all artists and creative practitioners.

I’m of the opinion that having work exhibited (or performed, or published) is an important part of any artists’ creative practice. It provides the opportunity for the artist to have a voice in the world, and increases their feeling of self-worth. I do, however, have absolutely no doubt about the importance of the creative process – for Outsider Artists; for all artists. For everybody. It allows self-exploration, self-expression, communication and so much more. But, I am interested to know the impact exhibiting has on an artist. As a writer (although not a creative writer), I find that having work published helps me think I am doing something right. This is not to say that if I didn’t have work published, I would cease writing – as this is certainly not the case; I would write regardless of whether anyone was taking a blind bit of notice. But it encourages me to write more, particularly for this blog, where I have an interested following. Publication also means my work can be seen by a wider audience and that means my voice is being shared with more people.

Mr Imagination

Having conducted some research into the subject, I have found that most of the literature on the process versus product idea comes from art therapy schools. As art therapy is not something I am going to discuss in this article, I am taking process to mean the action of creating art (often a very therapeutic undertaking), and I am taking product to mean an exhibition, performance or publication which means the work created can be accessed by the general public.

My decision to write on this topic came about somewhat from bits of my current work. Specifically, looking at the impact a publicly-accessible product can have on offenders and ex-offenders. I think this group highlights my point most succinctly. If works by offenders and ex-offenders – a notoriously stigmatised and marginalised group – can be experienced by the average passer-by, this can have an overwhelming impact on their self-image and, fundamentally, their personal journey towards rehabilitation. Having work displayed/published/performed in a ‘space’ dedicated to the arts means they have a legitimate place in society, and a new ‘label’ (despite my disdain for labels) that is profoundly less negative than the one that society has previously given them. For prisoners, having work and feedback from those ‘on the outside’, can provide links with the community and a huge surge in self-worth: they see themselves as worthy of having their work seen by society.

This is not to say that we still need to think about the ethics of displaying work by Outsider Artists – or any artists for that matter. We must still ensure we are always working towards an ethically considered way of approaching the curation of art by vulnerable people. For more on this, you may like to have a browse through the ‘Curatorial Questions’ section of the blog.

Scottie Wilson, Greedies

I think the internet has certainly had a large part to play in the ‘product’ side of the argument. Now, artists, writers, performers, etc., can upload their work to a website or a blog for the world to see. It is not so dependent on having an exhibition in a sought after location, or having your book published by a well-known publishing house. Perhaps there are artists out there who prior to the internet may not have considered ever having their work seen (perhaps due to a lack of opportunity or luck in the art world), who are now able to share what they are doing with a wider audience. But this, I think, is a technological tangent, albeit an interesting one that I might explore further in future.

Anyway, I think I have said as much as I can, and now it’s over to you. I would be very interested to hear from artists about their thoughts on this subject. Does exhibiting/performing your work provide something extra outside of the creative process? Is feedback important? Is sharing your voice and your thoughts a vital part of your practice?

Please do comment below, write to me on Twitter: @kd_outsiderart, or if you would prefer, send me an email: kdoutsiderart@yahoo.com. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

November 2, 2014
Lola Dupre

Lola Dupre is a self-taught collage artist and illustrator currently based near Galway in Ireland. Since 2000 she has been living and working in Switzerland, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal and now Ireland. She has collaborated with photographers including Lisa Carletta, Madame Peripetie, Helen Sobiralski, William Kano and Laetitia Bica. And has published work with magazines such as New Statesman, New Republic, Flaunt, Flair Italia, Hi-Fructose, Die Welt and Revista Marvin and exhibited work with galleries in the USA, France, Japan, Germany, England, Scotland and Australia. She is represented by CES Contemporary in Los Angeles USA.

Lola Dupre, Benjamin Netanyahu

Lola Dupre, Detail from Untitled

Lola Dupre, Double D

Lola Dupre, Exploded Al Capone

Lola Dupre, Mata Hari

You can see more of Lola’s work by clicking here to visit her website

October 20, 2014
Joe Cook: The Pirate Collection

You may remember Joe Cook’s work from a previous post – from all the way back in October 2012! (Click here to read it). Joe got in touch again recently with some images of his most recent work. I thought it would make for an interesting feature to take a look at what Joe’s up to now. Below you’ll find a piece from Joe on what he’s been working on of late, as well as some images of his fantastic new work. Enjoy!

“These images are projections from an imaginary pirate world – a world described in some detail by a friend of mine. Some scenes were described directly to me while others were inspired by old photos of jungles, high seas, ships and pirate revolutions. There remains, especially in children, a notable fascination in pirate worlds – a fascination I have attempted to harness. The images are drawn in ink and then digitally enhanced to increase vibrancy and saturation. This over exaggeration of colour was both to promote an exotic energetic hot alien world and simply to please my personal tastes. There is a particular rebellious story which accompanies these images – a story that will no doubt make its way to the surface.” – Joe Cook

September 2, 2014
Brian Gibson: What does it mean to be an ‘Outsider’?

I asked artist Brian Gibson for his thoughts on the term ‘Outsider Art’ and what it means to him as a practising artist. Below is his response and a display of his own artwork. Click here for more information on Brian and his work.

I have never been quite certain as to where I fit as an Artist. For a long time the thought of being an artist felt very alien to me, it was after all another culture. Artists were clever, confident, sophisticated and well educated people. That was not how I saw myself; I was just some lone youth from a council estate on the outskirts of Newcastle from a single parent household who had a history of truancy with little to show in terms of qualifications.

On the domestic front it was my Father who could draw, he was very gifted, he could draw calligraphy free hand or paint golden Celtic knots or Spanish dancers onto painted egg shells and all sorts of other intricacies. He was a gifted man who never really dared to share or show his talent beyond the garden gate. In comparison my creative efforts were never so precise. My handwriting was spidery and I never could quite get the hang of perspective; such things didn’t come natural to me, so the notion of becoming an artist wasn’t even on the radar for me. However there was a creative flame that flickered within me and I was fortunate that my efforts were never discouraged and even if the end results often fell short of how I wanted things to be, I was at least able to lose myself in what I would later know as “the creative process.”

Brian Gibson, White Rabbit

Art became less of an alien culture, as I got to know various accomplished works of art via my regular city visits to the art galleries and libraries when absconding from school. Also importantly for me was the fact that I had met someone who had decided to embark on their own creative path; he was a poet by the name of Barry MacSweeny. He lived on the adjacent Council Estate and was the elder cousin of two of my school friends, so occasionally we could find him in his mother’s kitchen writing away whenever we called round for a biscuit and drink of pop. As one of the emerging 60’s poets, his first book of poems was published when he was just 19 years old. Being older he didn’t have much to do with us, appearance wise he looked a bit like Terry Collier from the TV series “The Likely Lads”; dapper and wiry.

Having known such a person in my youth left a simmering impression on me. Why I mention him here is that he chose to do something creative and that was influential for me and secondly, if he were a visual artist he might now be considered posthumously to be some kind of Outsider. Although he never went to University, he was nominated for the poetry chair at Oxford. This however turned out to be just a cynical publicity stunt concocted by his publisher. This humiliation along with his own personal demons contributed to him remaining a marginalised poet for over 25 years. He died in 2002 aged 52.

Brian Gibson, Those Late John Garfield Blues

The original definition of term “Outsider” set out by Roger Cardinal back in the 1970s seems to have evolved and undergone a seismic transformation in recent years, particularly with the expansion of social media. Such connectivity has meant that creative people working outside the mainstream are no longer so dependent on the nod of the well informed to decide whether this or that piece is an actual work of art.

Now individuals can link up with other individuals, share ideas, post up images, form groups, put together exhibitions and even sell their work. Autonomy, self-empowerment and money – it all sounds rather good but the reality may be a little different. To be an Outsider Artist seems to have become incredibly fashionable of late, numerous tee-shirts and accessories in Selfridges and articles in Sunday supplements seems to be of good indicator of this.

Outsider Art is now being presented as the more rebellious sibling to the established world of fine art, with Folk art the more amenable earthy but less noteworthy cousin. Outsider Art is more rock and roll, more edgy, and people are proud to wear their Outsiderness like a badge of honour. Now and this may not be a bad thing but I am aware that anyone can get in on the act. I have seen a lot of savvy websites by individuals where the work veers into being more about a product in a particular style that happens to look like Outsider Art. As a trained artist who was dealing with his or her own mental health issues once said to me: “Outsider Art is easy to fake,” or at least it might seem that way. So a question that I have is “What does it means when such work becomes an entrepreneurial enterprise?”

Brian Gibson, Candy Says

There are many other questions regarding the increasing popularity and branding of Outsider Art. I can envisage a future where a retailer such as Primark would be either selling tee-shirts cheaply of original prints from acknowledged Outsiders such as Madge Gill or Jean Dubuffett and the like or, more likely – to save on copy write issues – just employing some people to produce something that looks a bit like the work of an Outsider Artist. Is this any more different than buying an original reprint from a more exclusive and prestigious source or to put it another way, who gets the money and what is the money the measure of ?

Despite its current popularity, Outsider Artists tend to be Outsiders for a reason. It may well be that the making of work is the sole or soul reason why a person pursues a creative path, everything else may well be an after thought. The poet Barry MacSweeny could write and he could rant and he had his own demons so there were times when he just couldn’t get much of any thing together. I don’t think that this lessened the quality of his work, but I doubt if it served him very well in getting his work published. This seems to be the reality for a number of visual artists that I know, making the work is one thing, doing the rest is another. The added pressures of presenting work to a public audience to a deadline and dealing with unknown people, along with all the other stuff can be more than enough for most.

Brian Gibson, Way Down in a Hole

For a good while now marginalised individuals and groups have worked hard to put themselves in the frame work so to speak in a way in which they feel represents them in the way that they wish to be seen and valued. It can take a lot of time and thought to develop environments where people feel safe and supported but I am sure that I am not the only one to have heard stories of unscrupulous figures waiting in the wings who are only too willing to put their profit and their own prestige way before the people they purport to represent. Having worked with vulnerable adults for over ten years now, I am just a little concerned that with so many self proclaimed Outsiders seeking centre stage, individuals and groups who have been historically marginalised may once again find them selves out of the picture.

Brian Gibson, Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

A note on Brian’s work (presented in this blog post):

Earlier this year I produced six pieces with the overall title of “I am frightened and timid and I don’t want to play” specifically for an exhibition as part of Fringe Arts Bath. Some of the works are named after the titles of songs but don’t really have much to do with the songs themselves, if at all.

Click here for Brian’s website

August 13, 2014