Read on Twitter
okay i made asiago thyme polenta w poached eggs, i have black tea w oatmilk. chores are done, lip gloss applied, ordered my first (!) Diptyque candle. i am ready to talk about: art
in 1945 Jean Dubuffet coined the term art brut (translated to eng. in 1972 by Roger Cardinal as outsider art), a term for the relationship btwn surrealism, automatic (automitism messages, propheticism. sometimes included work done by visionaries, the mentally ill, and mediums.
Dubuffet and a few others ( Andre Breton) got the approval of Modernists for their work as it is viewed as being done by the mentally ill. It's "primitive" (a term that is largely racist and ill informed about world art history) marks, and representational figures are organic
Outsider art isn't distillated versions of but rather shares technique with the surrealists and the Dadaists, like Dadaist collage maker, writer and sound poet Raoul Hausmann.
these movements are heavily influenced by politics and the ennui of the people. Dadaism was a byproduct of the cultural ennui of WWI. My favorite play the Gas Heart by Trista Tzara is an act of non sequiturs mocking the classical structure of drama
Andre Breton defines surrealism as "pure psychic automatism" and outsider art has the least in common with the surrealists. Outsider art does not require automatic writing, hosting prophecies or otherwise disassociation of the self for the creation of the work
Outsider art is better defined now as art done by those not classically trained (classical training means school, studies, "natural talent" and other markers of gate keeping into art. Classicism and racism and imperialism are to thank for that)
A good way to examine outsider art is the use of time. Classically trained art and the common sense of the mind assumes that the more time you spend on something the better something is both morally and aesthetically.
This isn't all that true, though. There is no moral imperative to spending time, wasting time, synchronizing time with your body. With outsider work, the time spent on a piece can does and should stretch out as far as time itself does because the work exists with time
I like outsider art because it expands between accessible and incredibly laborious. Neither equate to moral goodness or good aesthetics. Like Royal Robertson's yard: he became a side show bob type and was a real son of a bitch. He believed in the prophecies he heard.
Dadaism requires humor, irrationalism, and artistic freedom. The principles of dadaism require proof of the known so one can disengage from the known and experiment and/or play in the unknown and the absurd. Outsider art cannot fit this definition as is proof of Robertson's yard
Sulton Rogers carved figures he called “haints” (a term used by the gullah geechee people w a good ass history). He carved people he met in his dreams which he called “futures.” (Pics are from the AVA museum in Baltimore I think everyone should go to) self taught and laborious
Patty Kuzbida made the Alfie Bed out of glass beads, costume jewelry and bettle wings “my parents would fight and break stuff. I guess mosaics are now my way of putting it all back together.”
Outsider art is 
because most outsider artists experience life as a lived experience rather than life as an artists. They are waitresses or lab technicians or veterinarians or bums. And it’s the only even playing field re: sexism and classism
because most outsider artists experience life as a lived experience rather than life as an artists. They are waitresses or lab technicians or veterinarians or bums. And it’s the only even playing field re: sexism and classism
Linda St John is that bitch!!! Imo she made these works w very detailed yet brief and heartbreaking memories to go alongside them. “I made my first painting like I wrote my book, out of the corner of my eye”
time lasts as long as it takes to make the piece. i think outsider art, though often inspired by god and pain, is inexplicably in a relationship with time. the pain is not transformed into moral goodness and its usually not transformed into any aesthetic goodness.
time isn't linear in these works because whatever is being described or created in these works are not linear.
W C Rice “Died in Hell Water” it’s said that Rice saved his fathers soul on his death bed and that inspired his works The Cross Garden and he made works based on the word of god
Willard Hill liked fish and I like these sculptures. They’re made from plastic bags and masking tape. He didn’t start making work until he was in his 70s
Outsider art is bizarre and available. It is incredibly time consuming and will never come out looking realist and will always be at a disadvantage because our collected understanding of art is by way of photography and the European painters.
The work is usually funny and equally as painful. The emotion lasts before and after the piece is made and probably continues to exist but the point is that nothing is exercised by the work it is experimented with. Like gestalt theory and acting out the self,
The work picks up and let’s go on a timeline that doesn’t go forward and/or backward. Like Sulton Rogers calling his dreams “futures” it is obvious that the work is given the perimeters of the current physical space of the artist but stretches far beyond in all directions.
Nellie Mae Brown (@ the high museum in ATL) didn’t start making work until her second husband died and she started decorating her yard before making drawings and then dolls and figures and we love her
