A publication of Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art VOLUME 21
SUMMER 2016
OUTSIDER
THE
THE OUTSIDER 1
Untitled, 2014 Graphite and colored pencils on newsprint cut and mounted on paper 4.2 x 3.9 in (10.7 x 9.8 cm)
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CONTRIBUTORS
Ann Cernek A Chicago native and former Intuit intern, Ann is a graduate of McGill University and currently works there as an assistant with the McGill Faculty of Arts Internship Office.
Faheem Majeed Faheem Majeed is a full-time artist working in Chicago. His past experience in arts administration and education includes two years at the University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Art and Art History as associate director and faculty and six years at the South Side Community Arts Center as executive director and curator.
The Outsider 5
7
William Swislow An Intuit board member and frequent contributor to The Outsider, Bill is a digital business consultant, writer and operator of the cultural website interestingideas.com.
Fearless Fervor: 25 Years of Intuit BY CARRIE MCGATH
BY WILLIAM SWISLOW
19 Intuit’s top 20
BY WILLIAM SWISLOW
22 A significant past exhibit is revisited, focusing attention on themes of race, labeling and the power of art
ANN CERNEK WITH FAHEEM MAJEED
29 Courttney Cooper maps chart artist’s path
Melissa Wiley An Intuit volunteer and Chicago resident, Melissa Wiley writes for Chicago-area publications such as the Chicago Book Review and Chicago Stage Standard and writes her own creative nonfiction, which has seen print in numerous journals and literary reviews. She serves as an assistant editor at Sundog Lit.
BY DEBRA KERR
15 For 25 years, exhibits form heart and soul of Intuit
Carrie McGath Writing for publications such as Brut Force and New Art Examiner, Carrie McGath’s interest in art has led her to a career in art criticism and review. In addition to her writing, she works at the Art Institute of Chicago as an assistant to the chair of the Department of Textiles and as a rover within several other departments, writing and providing administrative support across the museum.
The Next Generation
BY MELISSA WILEY
32 Book Reviews
BY WILLIAM SWISLOW
ISBN 978-0-9823408-4-4 The Outsider is published once a year by Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, located at 756 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL 60642. Prior to Fall 1996, Volume 1, Issue 1, The Outsider was published as In’tuit. On the Front Cover: Detail, Thornton Dial (American, 1928 – 2016). Royal Flag, 1997-98. American Flag, Toy Doll, Toy Bull, String, Industrial Sealing Compound, Oil, Enamel, Spray Paint On Canvas Mounted On Wood, 77.95 X 79.93 X 6.7 in. William S. Arnett Collection Of Souls Grown Deep Foundation. Photo By Steven Pitkin/Pitkin Studios. Design: LOWERCASE » lowercaseinc.com
On the Back Cover: Henry Darger's room
THE OUTSIDER 1
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4 THE OUTSIDER
THE NEXT GENERATION
Twenty-five years is officially considered a generation, and,
Our education programs are key to this effort, and in 2015–
here at Intuit, we launch our second generation on June 10,
2016 we reached 13 schools and 25 teachers through our
2016. That’s right! This quirky, edgy art place—known by such
Teacher Fellowship Program, ensuring that both veteran
titles as hidden gem, funkiest museum in Chicago and, even,
educators and their students know the man behind
a top-10 Chicago art museum—is 25 years old!
Mr. Imagination, for instance. For the past two decades, the program has targeted underserved communities. As a result,
Outsider art may not seek the spotlight, but it definitely makes
we have helped make outsider art part of the curriculum in
an impression, viscerally affecting anyone who sees it. You
areas where its message holds the most promise to empower
can’t help but be changed by art that demands to be created
young artists to develop their creativity. regardless of
regardless of fame or fortune. Twenty-five years in, we’ve made
circumstances. Culminating with a student exhibition,
the most democratic, accessible art on the planet available to
the program has now reached more than 10,000 students.
many thousands more. We’ve aged gracefully while ensuring the next generation has access to artists all too easy to miss,
We started IntuiTeens in 2014, making outsider art into
working behind often-closed doors. All the more reason, we
standard education beyond the classroom and the school
think, to continue to keep ours wide open.
year. Over the course of a summer, the IntuiTeens develop peer-to-peer workshops that challenge other teens to create
As much as we love our quirky space—the West Town light
their own art while engaging in thoughtful discussion about
that filters onto work even its artists likely never dreamed our
our culture. Workshops take place at spaces such as branches
audiences would so deeply enjoy—outsider art is relevant to
of the Chicago Public Library and encourage teens to feel a
the wider public. This means thinking about doing everything
sense of ownership of their creative potential.
we do better…and going to those who may not be able to come to us, despite reaching people in greater numbers
At 25, we may be older and wiser, but we have not lost our
each year. Intuit is ensuring outsider art, if not quite fully
edge. We’ve gotten smarter while attracting a steady stream of
mainstream, is seeping into the public consciousness.
new visitors from all over the world to shows such as
The world has never been more in need of outsider art’s
Lee Godie’s self-portraits and the almost alien encounters of
perspectives than now, amid the polarized rhetoric dominating
Clarence and Grace Woolsey’s bottle-cap creations. We’ve
the air waves, and no one deepens our discourse and
raised important funds but remain dependent on your support.
sympathies quite like outsider artists. The least we can do is
This year, if you donate $2,500, you can be named a
make their voices—and their beautiful creations—heard and
second-generation founder. Every dollar directly supports
seen by as many as possible.
world-class exhibitions and award-winning education programs. Please join in taking Intuit—and the outsider artists who otherwise risk going unnoticed—into the next generation. — DEBRA KERR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Photos by Intuit and Cheri Eisenberg
THE OUTSIDER 5
1991
80 people gather at Ann Nathan Gallery with the aim of establishing an organization to celebrate Outsider Art. The organization is dubbed The Society for Outsider, Intuitive and Visionary Art. While looking for a permanent space, exhibitions take place in pop ups throughout the city. Two exhibitions, From Chicago and The Thrift Store Paintings are unveiled.
6 THE OUTSIDER
1992
The organization’s name is changed to Intuit: The Center for Outsider and Intuitive Art and the fundraiser, “Not a Hoax! A Benefit!” raises over $13,000 for the center. Intuit presents The Healing Machines of Emory Blagdon, the Nebraska artist’s first solo show in Chicago.
1993
Intuit has a booth at the inaugural Outsider Art Fair in New York City. Over 50 Intuit members attend the fair, and are treated to a visit to the loft of Robert Greenberg and Cordova Lee. Jan Petry curates Eccentric Chairs, a show featuring chairs by Hosea Hayden as well as other ornate chairs, seats, and thrones.
1994
The exhibition Hair Signs opens in April showcasing hair trade signs from Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. Crowning Achievements: The Crimped and Cutting Edge in Bottle Cap Sculpture, the first large-scale exhibition of the Clarence and Grace Woolsey sculptures, opens at insideART. Intuit holds its first annual Reel-AThon, a film series on Outsider Art.
FEARLESS FERVOR: 25 YEARS OF INTUIT BY CARRIE MCGATH
The great beauty of Chicago and its art world comes from a
having outsider art as an integral element of the city’s
drive to discover and experience artists and their work without
cultural history. With such an admiration and following for
pretense, to find the creative spigots that describe the human
these primal artworks and the artists who created them,
condition—and with a keen curiosity for the edgy. These
recognizing the genre in an organized way seemed a necessity,
elements very much occupy the spectrum of outsider art.
and their proposal was met with a resounding agreement among other collectors of the work.
Generations of Chicago artists, like Ray Yoshida, Ed Paschke and Roger Brown along with fellow Chicago Imagists, The Monster Roster and many others, were drawn to outsider art because of the deep and real humanity so elemental to the artists working in this realm. Intuit celebrates outsider art’s truth: It is visionary, lively, beautiful and complex. That 25-year celebration continues. Outsider art occupies a massive and important place in Chicago’s art historical topography. These roots are organic to
INTUIT CELEBRATES OUTSIDER ART’S TRUTH: IT IS VISIONARY, LIVELY, BEAUTIFUL AND COMPLEX.
the city—as was Intuit’s early incarnation. Intuit was started
2016’s 25th Anniversary of Intuit marks its continued
by a small group of people who wanted there to be a central
navigation into outsider and self-taught art, driven by a mission
place as well as a serious study of outsider art. In the summer
that engages audiences in the art form through education,
of 1991, Don Baum, Roger Brown, Susann Craig, Marjorie
programming, and, especially, intense and unusual exhibitions.
Freed, Ann Nathan, Bob Roth, Judy Saslow and Cleo Wilson
Collective Soul: Outsider Art from Chicago Collections rounded
held a well-attended public meeting to discuss the need of
out 2014’s exhibition program and was curated by Robert
Photos by Intuit and Cheri Eisenberg
THE OUTSIDER 7
Grossett and David Syrek. This exhibition in particular
A former executive director and one of the organization’s
illustrated how collectors in the city possess an aesthetic that
founders, Cleo Wilson remains board president. Kerr says,
resonates with outsider art and how Chicago collectors were
“my role is as successor to the spirit of Cleo’s tenure,” and
among the first to usher in a serious appreciation of this art.
they continue to work closely to further solidify Intuit’s future.
Gallerists and collectors like Ann Nathan, Judy Saslow, Russell
Kerr has given additional texture to that mission, furthering
Bowman and Carl Hammer helped to situate this work into an
the professionalism of the organization and emphasizing
art world context and as a genre worthy of serious collecting.
engagement and accessibility.
French artist Jean Dubuffet said, “A work of art is only of interest, in my opinion, when it is an immediate and direct projection of what is happening in the depth of a person’s being. It is my belief that only in this Art Brut can we find the natural and normal processes of artistic creation in their pure and elementary state.” The exhibitions Intuit has mounted in its 25-year history exemplify this sentiment: from retrospectives of Ulysses Davis and Mr. Imagination, to showcasing its permanent collection, as in 2015’s Exposed! The programming surrounding every exhibition at Intuit includes lectures, panels, films and hands-on art sessions and
EACH OF THESE ARTISTS HAD A TIRELESS WORK ETHIC AND CREATED ART THAT IS ACCESSIBLE, POIGNANT AND EGALITARIAN.
is the reason why Intuit stands out from all other museums in the city as far as accessibility and resourceful creativity.
The center’s Henry Darger Room Collection opened in 2008 and speaks to one of Intuit’s main tenets: to engage and
Democracy and industrious ingenuity is very much a part
educate the public about outsider and intuitive art. Darger’s
Chicago’s personality. These same characteristics mark this
presence in the city’s history and in Intuit’s history signals
genre, so it not surprising that many of its luminaries,
outsider art as a worthy component in the city’s art scene.
Henry Darger, Lee Godie, Joseph Yoakum, Drossos Skyllas
He lived at 851 West Webster Street in the Lincoln Park
and William Dawson, were based in Chicago, as is Intuit. Each
neighborhood, and, in this one-room flat, he created a world
of these artists had a tireless work ethic and created art that is
very different from his daily routine as a hospital janitor. The
accessible, poignant and egalitarian. The early days of Intuit
recreation of his room illustrates Intuit’s ability to not only show
possessed a humility that still exists, with its genuine intentions
but to immerse the public in the potency of the art.
and creative outlook as its backbone. As a complement to exhibition, the expansion of education The current space in West Town was purchased in 1998 after
programming—the Teacher Fellowship Program and guided
27 shows in spaces around the city. Executive Director Debra
tours—illustrated again that learning and advocating is
Kerr took the reins in late 2014 and her intent for Intuit’s
paramount to the mission. The Robert A. Roth Study Center
future continues the democratic nature of outsider art and
is a place for scholars and enthusiasts to continue to develop
the mission of the organization. The overall vision is to make
their understanding and appreciation of outsider art
the center “the premiere outsider art museum in the world,”
alongside the significant exhibitions held in Intuit’s two large
Kerr explained. “On the way to realizing that vision, I also
gallery spaces.
want Intuit to be the most accessible museum in Chicago in every way—abilities, color, background, socioeconomic status,
The 25th Anniversary of Intuit is a celebration of this art form’s
orientation—a gathering place for each person to acknowledge
journey to the fore of the art world. With a focused mission
the potential of his or her own creativity while experiencing the
and long-term strategy, Intuit’s next 25 years and beyond
transformative power of this amazing art genre.”
will continue to engage and transform with scholarship, programming and superbly-curated exhibitions. ■
8 THE OUTSIDER
1995
Chicago artist and founding member of Intuit Roger Brown opens his studio and home as the center’s new headquarters. His personal collection of outsider art becomes available for the public to view. Jeff Cory is named Intuit’s first executive director, and holds the title for the next ten years. Exhibitions include Self: The Paintings of Drossos P. Skyllas as well as Fancy Work: The Domestic Textiles of Cora Meek and Ballyhoo.
1996
Intuit registers the web domain art.org, marking the beginning of the center’s online presence. The site is debuted at the annual Outsider Art Fair. Several exhibitions are held including The Art of Aldo Piacenza: Celebration of Church and Country and Outsider Art: An Exploration of Chicago Collections.
1997
The exhibition year opens with Images in a Silent World: The Art of James Castle. A unique fundraiser, “Collect-O-Rama ’97: The Intuit Members’ Really Big Deaccession Sale, Open House and Barbecue,” is held. Outside In: What a Trip! marks the first show of student artwork under the Intuit educational program.
1998
The tour series, “You Asked For It,” allows members to visit the homes of collectors. It commencesin January and continues each month through June. Exhibitions include Henry Darger: The Unreality of Being and The Religious Charts of Reverend Samuel David Phillips, the first ever exhibition of the artist’s work. Docents from Intuit give tours of Henry Darger’s room at 851 West Webster. THE OUTSIDER 9
1999
Intuit finds its permanent home at 756 North Milwaukee Avenue. An auction of 81 knock-down dolls by artists such as Nicholas Herrera, Purvis Young, and Gladys Nilsson raises $18,000 for the center. The student show Outside In enters its third year.
2000
Patty Carroll curates E2K: Elvisions 2000 to celebrate the 65th birthday of Elvis Presley. The show features over 100 artworks by 50 Elvis-inspired artists, as well as a performance by Mike Albert followed by an auction of velvet Elvis works created by an array of selftaught artists. Metamorphosis: The Fiber Art of Judith Scott opens in September and includes an appearance by Scott’s twin sister, Joyce, who discusses Judith’s emergence into art making.
2001
The year marks visionary exhibitions such as Haiti: Vodou Visionaries and Prophecies: Adventist Charts from the Jenks Memorial. Yale University professor Robert Farris Thompson closes Intuit’s lecture series with Tango Black Gift, highlighting African and African American influences on music, dance, and art.
2002
Intuit’s 10th anniversary party and auction raises $75,000, with a portion of the proceeds go to benefit victims of September 11th. Intuit makes the decision to become a collecting organization. The center’s acclaimed Intuitive Music Series enters its third year, and exhibitions include Identity and Desire, featuring photographs by Lee Godie.
2003
Intuit collaborates with The John Michael Kohler Arts Center to present Albert Zahn: I’ll Fly Away, curated by Leslie Umberger. The Intuit Show of Folk and Outsider Art, a three day fair which evolved from Collect-O-Rama, features 35 local and national exhibitors.
2004
Intuit is gifted several pieces for their permanent collection, including works by Aldo Piacenza, David Phlipot, August Walla, Judith Scott, Bill Traylor and Sister Gertrude Morgan. These new works are showcased in the exhibition Genesis: Gifts and Promised Gifts from the Permanent Collection.
2005
The massively popular exhibition, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan is a marker of the center’s continuing success. Intuit’s popularity grows with the exhibition FOUND: The Magazine, the Stuff, which is seen by over 700 visitors. The show includes the snapshots and objects that inspired Found magazine’s mission of unearthing discarded notes, Polaroids, and letters.
2006
Intuit’s celebrates its 15th year with Revelation! The Quilts of Marie “Big Mama” Roseman, curated by Martha Watterson, as well as In the Eyes of Mr. Dawson, curated by John Cain
THE OUTSIDER 11
2007
Lonnie Holley, the first artist in residence at Intuit, creates a site-specific sculpture of found materials as well as sixty-two sculptures over the course of the residency. Mary Donaldson curates Don’t Fence Me In: The Art of Daniel Watson.
12 THE OUTSIDER
2008
Intuit experiences record attendance, with over 8,000 gallery visitors and almost 15,000 visitors to special events. The Henry Darger Room Collection opens in Intuit’s Study Center Gallery. Darger’s landlord, Kiyoko Lerner, gifts Intuit an array of Darger’s personal belongings and architectural elements from his one-room Chicago apartment. The Henry Darger Exhibition is opened as a companion to the room’s unveiling, featuring 13 watercolors by Darger.
2009
Despite a recessionary environment, Intuit does not cut any programming and continues to mount several exhibitions including Freaks and Flash, a show highlighting work from the heyday of tattoo parlors, curated by Anna Friedman-Herlihy.
2010
The retrospective The Treasure of Ulysses Davis features 119 sculptures by the artist and receives critical acclaim along with Forget Me NOT: SelfTaught Portraits. Intuit’s first Teacher Fellowship Program exhibition is opened, and the center sponsors its first study trip to Europe.
2011
Intuit’s 20th anniversary year begins with Architecture of Hope: The Treasures of Intuit, featuring works from the permanent collection selected by guest curator, Roger Manley.
2012
Artist and Chicago imagist Karl Wirsum curates the show Karl Wirsum Eyeballs the Intuit Collecton. The exhibition showcases his favorite works from the center’s permanent collection.
2013
Beyond Influence: The Art of Little City showcases the work of several artists from the Palatine, Illinois studio space, The Little City Center for the Arts. The organization has served people with developmental disabilities for over 20 years, so that they may have opportunities to create and exhibit their art.
2014
Brewed in Belgium: The Collection of the MADmusée is a highlight of the exhibition year, created in collaboration with the Belgian museum MADmusée which exhibits the work of developmentally disabled artists while educating the public, as well as conserving and documenting these works.
2015
Martha Henry curates an exhibition of work by Chicago’s own Mr. Imagination. The show follows the story of the artist’s life and includes early works, his sculptural bottle cap works as well as artwork created from remnants of the 2008 fire that destroyed his Chicago home and gallery. Jan Petry curates dRAW, an exhibition that includes works by both past and contemporary self-taught artists.
2016
Intuit celebrates 25 years, and hosts Insider Tours of Outsider Collections, as well as a reinterpretation of the groundbreaking 1982 Corcoran exhibit, Post Black Folk Art in America. Intuit also celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Teacher Fellowship Program, as well as 10 years of its student exhibition. ■
THE OUTSIDER 13
Eccentric Chairs, 1993. Curated by Jan Petry.
14 THE OUTSIDER
FOR 25 YEARS, EXHIBITS FORM HEART AND SOUL OF INTUIT BY WILLIAM SWISLOW
Intuit has been defined by its exhibits from the start, and there
Between those two exhibits there have been 55 one-person
have been a lot of them—110 at latest count, not including
shows, about equally divided between well-known artists,
the 20 student and teacher shows related to Intuit’s education
including those from that first show, and lesser-known individuals
program.
and new discoveries like Cooper.
That prodigious number of exhibits reflects the reach of Intuit’s
There have also been some clear-cut blockbusters, like
artistic ambition, and the shows all connect to a common
Outsider Art: An Exploration of Chicago Collections, presented
theme, starting in 1991 with From Chicago, presented by what
with the Chicago Cultural Center in 1996-97 and including
was originally called the Society for Outsider, Intuitive and
more than 400 pieces by 70 artists. Or Haiti: Vodou Visionaries
Visionary Art, continuing through 2016’s Zinzinnati Ohio USA:
from 2001, which also included more than 400 works of art.
The Maps of Courttney Cooper. The theme is discovery —
There have been shows drilling into specialized themes, like
discovery of art and artists, of the role of the collector, of new
African Hair Signs from 1994 or 2001’s Prophecies, which
ways of looking at art, of new ways of fostering it.
presented end-of-the-world prophecy charts from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
That first show in 1991 surveyed several of Chicago’s important self-taught artists, most of whom eventually received
Some shows have been built around broader themes, like
one-person shows at Intuit, including Henry Darger,
transportation (Getting There! 1998); medium, like works
Drossos Skyllas, Mr. Imagination, Aldo Piacenza,
in wood (Sticks, 2009); or subject, like portraits (Icons and
Derek Webster, William Dawson, Joseph Yoakum and
Intimates, 2003, and Forget Me NOT: Self-Taught Portraits,
Lee Godie. The recent Zinzinnati Ohio USA featured Courttney
2012). 2012’s Heaven and Hell might have been the most
Cooper’s obsessively-drawn maps.
ambitious of these themed shows, co-produced with the
THE OUTSIDER 15
Loyola University Museum of Art and featuring more than
Old Dominion was the recipient in 2013 of a collection
150 objects split between Hell at Intuit and Heaven at LUMA’s
of Webster’s work assembled by the late Marilyn Houlberg,
own gallery.
who curated Intuit’s 2001 Vodou show—and Intuit’s 2004 Webster exhibit.
A number of exhibits have taken Chicago collections as their theme, including Intuit’s own, with seven shows featuring
Other exhibits have sparked some controversy. Perhaps most
selections from the permanent collection, such as the 10th
sensitive of all was Almost There: A Portrait of Peter Anton.
anniversary Architecture of Hope in 2011 and the high-concept
Shortly after its 2010 opening, Anton’s 1980 arrest for “distrib-
Karl Wirsum Eyeballs the Intuit Collection the following year.
uting obscene material to children” resurfaced. Intuit’s leadership agonized—and ultimately posted a notice in the
A few shows were part of important breakthroughs. There was
show explaining the situation, but it let the exhibit run its course.
the Healing Machines of Emery Blagdon, in 1992, before that artist’s spectacular environment became widely known (and
Some exhibits have been controversial over less sensitive
eventually acquired by the John Michael Kohler Art Center in
issues. Quality and integrity have been traditional hallmarks
Sheboygan, Wisc.). Crowning Achievements: The Crimped
of Intuit’s programming, so it’s inevitable that work on display
& Cutting Edge in Bottle Cap Sculpture featured the largest
sometimes disappoints at least some members’ standards.
display to that point of the sculptures of Clarence and Grace
Intuit’s second exhibition, the Thrift Store Painting Show
Woolsey (recently featured again in 2016’s Caparena).
curated by Jim Shaw in 1991, was not beloved among some for
Images in a Silent World: The Art of James Castle, in 1997,
implying an equivalence between thrift store art and art brut.
was the first one-person show for the Idaho artist east of the
Similarly, Elvis tributes in 2000’s E2K: Elvisions 2000, which
Mississippi and came just before Castle’s work conquered
included work by a number of trained artists, raised eyebrows,
first the New York Outsider Art Fair and then mainstream
as did shows in more recent years devoted to found photography
museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago. 2002’s
and ephemera. On the other hand, E2K and FOUND: The
Identity and Desire was one of the first major shows anywhere
Magazine, the Stuff drew crowds of people who might not
focused on the subject of outsider photography, featuring
otherwise have found Intuit.
the work of Morton Bartlett, Lee Godie and Eugene von Bruenchenhein. And Intuit gave Judith Scott her first one-person
One issue that hasn’t been very controversial is what to call the
show outside her Creative Growth home base in 2000.
art. There’s a reason “outsider” is still part of the organization’s name despite the years of virulent debate the word has
These are discoveries that helped lead to bigger and better
engendered elsewhere in the world. One explanation is to be
things for the work discovered. In other cases, an Intuit exhibit
found in the catalog for Outsider Art: An Exploration of Chicago
may have been the peak exposure that an artist or genre
Collections. As Michael Bonesteel recounted the view of curator
receives, for the time being anyway. Sometimes that’s because
Ken Burkhart: “The show shies away from the question of
the show reflect a very specialized interest, like those Adventist
what, precisely, outsider art is. The collectors themselves never
eschatological charts or the bottle-cap show. And sometimes
asked the question and Burkhart never found that they had any
featured artists have not gained traction in the marketplace to
strong opinions about the term. Moreover, these particular
equal their talent, for any number of reasons. Derek Webster
collectors found it unnecessary to distinguish between the
was a brilliant sculptor, but his vision was highly personal
outsider art in their collections and the other, more mainstream,
and complex, making his work at times challenging for some
work they owned.”
viewers. Plus, his pieces tend to be unwieldy, not always easy to transport and show. So while his sculpture turns up in auc-
In short, joy in the work has trumped anguish over what to call
tions and group shows, the Intuit exhibit appears to have been
it, for the broader Chicago community and for Intuit. ■
his exhibition high water mark, at least until 2016, when Old Dominion University in Virginia gave him a one-person show.
16 THE OUTSIDER
Top: Crowning Achievements: The Crimped & Cutting Edge in Bottle Cap Sculpture, 1994. Curated by Aron Packer and Bill Swislow. Bottom: From Chicago, 1991. Curated by Clay Morrison with help from Mike Noland and Aron Packer.
THE OUTSIDER 17
American Stone Carving, 2002. Curated by Michael Noland.
18 THE OUTSIDER
INTUIT’S TOP 20 BY WILLIAM SWISLOW
Picking the best of Intuit’s 114 exhibits (plus 20 student
3. Healing Machines of Emery Blagdon, curated by Dan
shows) is, of course, impossible. There have been too many
Dryden and Don Christensen (1992). Show number five for
great ones. Here, instead, is a list of personal favorites, not
Intuit, and a revelation, since Blagdon and his rural
necessarily in order. It is inherently subjective, reflecting a bias
Nebraska environment were mostly unknown until this time.
for shows that explored specific ideas and shows that featured
A spectacular case study in art that does not know its name.
artists who, at the time, I personally loved. 4. Self: The Paintings of Drossos P. Skyllas, curated by David 1. Outsider Art: An Exploration of Chicago Collections,
Russick (1995). Skyllas is up there with Darger and Yoakum
curated by Ken Burkhart (1996). This blockbuster early in
as one of Chicago’s greatest self-taught artists. But, because
Intuit’s history demonstrated not only the breadth and depth
his output was small, his ultra-fine-grained but off-kilter
of Chicago collections but also provided a stunning survey of
paintings are not nearly as ubiquitous as theirs.
work both widely known and obscure. Co-presented with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.
5. Henry Darger. The Unreality of Being, curated by Steven Prokopoff (1998). A deservedly substantial show in Darger’s
2. HEAVEN+HELL, curated by Janet Petry and Molly Tarbell
home town. Co-presented with the Chicago Department of
(2012). Themed shows are an interesting way to put work into
Cultural Affairs.
a different and more pointed context than the typical wall of a collector or museum allows. This was a big one, covering two of the most popular themes in outsider art. Co-presented with the Loyola University Museum of Art.
THE OUTSIDER 19
6. Vibrant Spirits. The Art of Derek Webster, curated by
is good indeed. Thrift stores are (or at least were) a fruitful
Marilyn Houlberg (2004). Webster’s work shows up in group
place to find compelling art that was otherwise overlooked, in
shows often enough, but he is still relatively unsung consider-
part because the makers most often are not trained artists.
ing his artistic achievements. It was fabulous seeing a major
Shaw is a pioneering collector of this material, with a great eye
exhibit of his fantastically complicated sculpture.
for the interesting, and the show demonstrated that.
7. In the Eyes of Mr. Dawson, curated by John Cain (2006).
15. Eccentric Chairs, curated by Jan Petry (1993). The
Another of Chicago’s greatest self-taught artists, and a treat
carved chairs of Hosea Hayden were a revelation, and there
to see a large concentration of his art in all its variety—wood
was plenty of other very cool seating on display.
carvings, paintings, bone sculptures and more. 16. African Hair Signs, curated by Jan Petry (1994). Another 8. A.G. Rizzoli. Architect of Magnificent Visions, curated by
early show and a revelation for those who had not yet discovered
Jo Farb Hernandez (2007). This show brought to Chicago a
this wonderful genre of vernacular work from artists of
substantial selection of Rizzoli’s architectural drawings, some
often-prodigious talent.
of the most compelling works of art brut ever composed. 17. American Stone Carving, curated by Michael Noland 9. The Treasure of Ulysses Davis, curated by Susan Crawley
(2002). Just a lovely show with work that is not always easily
(2010). This Savannah, Ga., barber was a master wood carver
available to see.
whose resonant work is not always easy to come by. Originated from Atlanta’s High Museum of Art.
18. Identity and Desire, curated by David Syrek and Jessica Moss (2002). A ground-breaking look at the photography of
10. Eugene Von Bruenchenhein: From the Wand of the
Morton Bartlett, Lee Godie and Eugene Von Bruenchenhein,
Genii, curated by Lisa Stone (2011). Intuit’s first show devoted
the latter two better known for their work in other media.
to the Milwaukee master of many media. 19. Crowning Achievements: The Crimped & Cutting Edge 11. Welcome to the World of Mr. Imagination, curated by
in Bottle Cap Sculpture (1994) and Outside the Lines:
Martha Henry (2015). I always liked Mr. I’s work but never
Ordinary Pastimes, Extraordinary Art (2004). OK, this is a bit
totally loved it. This show, however, removed my reservations.
of a cheat, since I co-curated these shows with Aron Packer and Cheri Eisenberg respectively. But for that reason it’s easy
12. Caparena: The Clarence and Grace Woolsey Figures,
to wax enthusiastic. Crimped and Cutting Edge was, to my
curated by David Syrek (2016). Intuit had surveyed the
knowledge, the biggest show ever executed on the art of the
bottle-cap sculptures of the Woolseys many years before,
bottle cap. Besides the important Woolsey work, there was an
but for this show Syrek made a focused case for the artfulness
abundance of figures and baskets as well as the large-scale
of their figures—and presented them beautifully.
work of bottle-cap artist Rick Ladd. Outside the Lines included bottle-cap crafts, but much more, from dozens of sock
13. Karl Wirsum Eyeballs the Intuit Collection (2012). Most
monkeys to Christmas ornaments to cigar-band masterworks.
every show from the Intuit permanent collection has been
More testimony to the ubiquity of creative talent and its
an embarrassment of riches. This show stands in for all seven
surprising outlets.
of them. 20. Outside In: What a Trip! (1996) The first show of student 14. Thrift Store Painting Show, curated by Jim Shaw (1991).
work under the auspices of Intuit educational programming
There’s nothing particularly great about thrift store art. In fact,
and the beginning of a fruitful relationship with Chicago school
quality is essentially randomized by the coincidence of what
teachers and students. ■
happens to have been discarded, but that means some of art
20 THE OUTSIDER
Top: In the Eyes of Mr. Dawson, 2006. Curated by John Cain. Bottom: Outsider Art: An Exploration of Chicago Collections, 1996. Curated by Ken Burkhart.
Thornton Dial (American, 1928 – 2016). Royal Flag, 1997-98. American Flag, Toy Doll, Toy Bull, String, Industrial Sealing Compound, Oil, Enamel, Spray Paint On Canvas Mounted On Wood, 77.95 X 79.93 X 6.7 in. William S. Arnett Collection Of Souls Grown Deep Foundation. Photo By Steven Pitkin/Pitkin Studios. 22 THE OUTSIDER
A SIGNIFICANT PAST EXHIBIT IS REVISITED, FOCUSING ATTENTION ON THEMES OF RACE, LABELING AND THE POWER OF ART ANN CERNEK WITH FAHEEM MAJEED
Intuit celebrates its 25th anniversary year with Post Black Folk
Faheem, would you tell us a little bit about yourself, setting
Art in America, 1930-1980-2016, curated by Chicago artist
the stage for what you bring to this exhibition as its curator?
and educator Faheem Majeed. The exhibition examines the art
I”m one of these people that wears many different hats. I was
and impact of the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s significant 1982
trained as a sculptor and a visual artist. I studied at Howard
exhibition, Black Folk Art in America, 1930–1980, which
University and received my master’s from University of Illinois
played a significant role in bringing to light the lack of
at Chicago. I generally identify as a sculptor, but a lot of my
acknowledgement, understanding and representation of black
art practice now is very much connected to my former role as
visual culture within American art museums’ collections and
executive director and curator of a space called the South Side
exhibitions. The show sparked unforeseen debates around
Community Art Center. After a while, my art production and
museum exhibition and collection diversity, the terminology
art making blended with curation, advocating, and supporting
associated with self-taught artists, and the marginalization
other artists and various community members. So that’s a little
of black artists within majority institutions. The exhibition
bit of how I enter into this. I think the Intuit board is especially
specifically initiated the collections of several Intuit founding
interested in how I talk about the artists. To be honest, I’m an
members as well as those of many other organizations
outsider to the world of outsider art. Although I’m a curator, I’m
grounded in showcasing artists from this genre.
not a traditional choice to curate in the space, but I think my art practice, and what I could bring to an exhibition, excited Intuit.
THE OUTSIDER 23
What have your interactions with Intuit been prior to
them have passed away, so I have also created some space for
working on the show?
living artists, especially those in Chicago. Voice is important;
Prior to being at Intuit, all I had really heard about the
often times we speak around the artist without allowing them to
organization was that it focuses on outsider art. I had a very
speak for themselves. I get that the artwork can be the voice,
limited understanding of outsider art in regards to the terminol-
but it’s sometimes nice to hear an actual voice! This is partially
ogy, history and artists included in the genre. But it turns out
why programs and events will support the show.
that a lot of the artists that were coming through Intuit—David Philpot, Eddie Harris, Mr. Imagination—were the same artists
Can you tell us a little more about the programming
that were coming through the South Side Community Art Cen-
around the show?
ter. I now understand that Intuit started as a type of collective
There will be between 44 and 50 artists in the show. With
for collectors that were very interested in a specific type of
that many different artists and the involvement of so many
artist. They have a passion around this type of art and came
collectors, I’ve come to realize that no matter what I put on the
together, because there was no other institutional support.
wall, someone is going to have something to say. We can take one work of art, pull it off the wall and place it on an easel to
You’ve referred to your work as “breadcrumbs in the forest
then have collectors or other artists come in and talk about
leading my audience back to the people and spaces that
their connection to the work of art, the artist and maybe share
I value or that I believe should be valued by others.” How
some alternative examples. There’s also an interest in
does this exhibit contribute to the sequence of your career?
bringing in other types of artists, like musicians, who could
Everything in my work connects. Some things are overt and
maybe connect with some of the ideas inspiring the show. I
some things are subtle. Some things you revisit, and you start
plan to hold panel discussions around terminology, the pros
to see the connections as you dig a little deeper. I’m also doing
and cons of labeling, and the inclusion of women. I noticed a
some weaving of different ideas with this exhibit. The show is
lack of representation of female artists in the original show…
about revisiting Black Folk Art in America, but it’s also about
so even in a show for those considered marginalized, there
the 25th anniversary of Intuit. I want to create, on one hand, a
are still some who are not included. There is also a strong
platform for the collectors, who might be nostalgic about many
association between outsider art and the prison industrial
of the works, to view the exhibit and share their expertise.
complex and special needs communities. It would be
But I also want to challenge all those in the room. Yes, it’s
interesting to address the parallels between artists being
about the artwork, but it’s also about where the artwork comes
affiliated with these two institutions and referred to as
from...and about the art that’s not in the room. I’d like to get
“black folk artists” or “black artists.”
different types of audiences to come in, so that we start to get a mixing of experience. In a lot of ways this is what my artwork
What role do you think the notion of “folk art” played
does. Positioning people, artwork and ideas is a lot like making
in the 1982 exhibition?
a collage or sculpture.
“Black Folk Art” was marketable. They needed a term, something for audiences to grab onto. “Black Art” or “Black Art
How has your experience working with local artists impacted
in America” wouldn’t do, because it wasn’t true—it wasn’t just
your approach to this exhibit?
black artists. There were a lot of visual connections to African
A lot of my work, whether it’s in museums, putting shacks
traditional craft-work. They couldn’t figure out the right term,
up on the South Side of Chicago, or building a museum that
so they added “folk” to the title. But this exhibit isn’t really
floats down the river, is about creating a platform for people
about challenging or finding the right answers to something but
and communities. This goes back to the mission of the South
rather about investigating. I would say that, actually, without
Side Community Art Center to support artists and their careers
the term “Black-Folk Art,” we may not be having this
through a series of different strategies. I will be revisiting a
conversation now. A community was created around those
lot of artists and artwork that was in the original show. All of
24 THE OUTSIDER
about power and control. Similarly, it is an oversimplification to simply identify many of the artists we are dealing with as folk or outsider artists. An artist can be many different things— folk artist, contemporary artist, performance artist—but it’s up to the artist to determine when and how to identify oneself rather than vice versa. It’s all about a power dynamic. Often times, the types of artists we are dealing with are seen as being powerless and unable to have power unless it is articulated or translated into something digestible to the mainstream, which is a predominantly white audience. Racism remains a part of everyday local and national discourse. How will this exhibit interact with that? The selection of the artworks to be exhibited in the show will say a lot about that. The themes and issues addressed in the art from the original show are still so relevant today. I don’t know if this still exists today, but there was a general perception, with the art from the first show, that it was similar to folk art—about the form and craft of the work. The truth is that many of the artists were making observations about political, social and systemic issues through their work. This is why a lot of people challenge the notion of it being called folk art, because actually it’s just artwork created in the same way that most artists create. So, yes, the themes of struggle, religion, police brutality, war and feminism will come through in the works, whether from the 1982 show or those added in 2016. The show and its programing will provide a space to explore these things, the connections between 1982 and who felt the need to push back against the term. This show is
2016, and the cyclical nature of life as we seem to continue to
going to be about the artwork—but also about what surrounds
deal with the same issues.
the artwork, including the labels. As an artist with professional training, what is your So is it fair to say that your aim is to discuss these labels?
understanding of the relationship between access to art
The Corcoran’s exhibit was entitled Black Folk Art in Ameri-
school and the production of self-taught art?
ca. Why have you chosen “post-black”?
There are just a lot of different types of art. I think the artistic
Yes, this show is very loaded with terminology. The title, Post
spirit is innate. I was fortunate to have a mother and fam-
Black Folk Art in America, is a tongue-in-cheek play on the
ily that supported me, saw the value of art and that it was
original title and exhibition. This is “post” the 1982 show, but
something I could go to school to study. I had the means to do
I am also making a connection to the concept of “post-black,”
that. But creativity, beauty, brilliance are things that happen in
which is pushing back against only being identified as the
many different spaces. An education, or being trained in tech-
“black artist.” There is a difference between being labeled as
niques and art history, doesn’t necessarily make the artist’s
a “black artist” and self-identifying as a “black artist.” It’s all
work more valuable. The notions of success, knowledge and value are something I challenge.
Inez Nathaniel Walker (American, 1911-1990). Untitled (Portrait of woman with necklace). Mixed media on typing paper, 18 1/2 x 13in. (frame). Intuit: The Collection of Intuitive and Outsider Art. Gift of Margaret Robson, 2006.25.3. THE OUTSIDER 25
2016 marks Intuit’s 25th anniversary. What role does this exhibit play in the celebration of Intuit? Many of the long-time members of the board entered into the collection of self-taught artists and artwork after seeing and hearing about Black Folk Art in America. When the show opened, it was the first of its kind, and it just inspired so many people. Eventually, some of those people gathered together and started Intuit. That’s obviously a simplified explanation, but in a lot of ways, the interest in revisiting the 1982 show as a celebration of Intuit’s 25th anniversary says a lot about the impact of the exhibition. It has been both amazing and scary to have so many collectors come up to me and tell me the show I’m revisiting is what inspired them to start collecting. I just want to do justice by the commitment and passion of these experts. You share a common desire with Intuit’s staff and board members: to engage Chicago communities through art. How do you hope audiences will interact with this exhibit? Intuit has played such a huge role in supporting the work that has been defined as outsider art. And in the spirit of Chicago’s do-it-yourself history, 25 years ago a group of collectors and dealers came together to say that this art mattered during a time when it didn’t have any visibility in Many of us are familiar with Bill Traylor, Joseph Yoakum
larger art institutions. In talking with the Intuit board and staff,
and Sister Gertrude Morgan. What is the significance of
it became clear they were looking for different perspectives to
displaying the works of these artists right alongside those
address the art and artists that they hold very dear. Evidence
of some lesser-known, newly-emerging talents?
of that is the fact that I’m sitting here talking to you. I’m hoping
In a lot of ways, the exhibition will present little bits of
to bring in and work with a diverse array of organizations and
narrative. Each one of the artists you mention has had a very
individuals to enjoy, engage and share their expertise on the
important role in the evolution of the art that Intuit collects
subject matter associated with the show. We hope to build
and exhibits. Exhibiting works by some of the original artists
some sustainable connections that will benefit Intuit and
included in the 1982 exhibition along with other artists that
positively impact its future. I’m not sure what the outcomes
came to light after that show allows for a discussion around
will be, but I will try to get a bunch of people in the room
perceptions of success and how they influence which artists
to look at the art, have some good conversations and see
we see and know of.
what pops out. ■
Above: Lonnie Holley (American, b. 1950). Working on Milwaukee Avenue, 2007. Mixed media, 28 x 14 x 14in. Collection of Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. Gift of Lonnie Holley.
Opposite: Derek Webster (American, 1934-2009). Red Ryder, 1987. Mixed media, 54 x 22 x 31in. Intuit: The Collection of Intuitive and Outsider Art. Gift of Ruth and Bob Vogele.
26 THE OUTSIDER
THE OUTSIDER 27
28 THE OUTSIDER
COURTTNEY COOPER MAPS CHART ARTIST’S PATH BY MELISSA WILEY
Before science claimed cartography for its own, mapmakers
swerve of side streets and sweep of rivers more mysterious for
also worked as landscape artists, painting from the same
being seen within a larger context. Perhaps most fundamental,
palette for both canvases. Today the disciplines still share
they have, in the process, helped us all rediscover our
much in common. Both remain portraitures of place—intimate
relationship to place.
in their precision. Both likewise allow glimpses into the person at work behind them. Yet maps’ use for practical
As artists continue to ground maps in human experience, they
purposes also makes them more apt to slip wholly into the
help close the distance between the world’s vastness and our
realm of science.
own existence. Cincinnati artist Courttney Cooper has done just this since a young age, honing his cartographer’s instinct
For as long as cartography has existed, however, artists have
while embracing the personal peeking through his side streets.
reminded us that all maps begin with their maker, a man or
Cooper glues together repurposed paper from his day job at
woman who doesn’t look down on our world from a lofty
Kroger for maps serving as time capsules of both his city and
distance but lives somewhere among us. From the maps
his life within it. Drawn with ballpoint pen from a memory of a
populating Vermeer’s interiors denoting pride in Dutch
lifetime spent walking Cincinnati’s neighborhoods while using
mercantilism to Jasper Johns’ attempts to subvert cartography’s
street maps for reference, these aerial images document the
pretensions to dominance over terra incognita, maps have
city’s changing landscape as well as Cooper’s evolution as an
served from their inception as art in which viewers may get lost
artist. Their level of detail speaks both to Cooper’s affection for
as well as means of plotting directions. They have made the
Cincinnati and the extent to which we are all shaped by our environment.
Courttney Cooper adding to his artwork during Intuit's opening reception for Zinzinnati Ohio USA: The Maps of Courttney Cooper. Photo by Intuit.
THE OUTSIDER 29
For more than 12 years, Cooper has partnered with Visionaries
seem to whisper, has conveyed the sensibilities of its maker.
+ Voices, a Cincinnati-based nonprofit supporting artists with
Cooper, however, takes this license even further. Reclaiming
disabilities by providing them with studio space in addition to
cartographers’ right to lavish their work with their own
art supplies, exhibition opportunities and access to the larger
perspective, he records his feelings regarding certain
art community. His work—displayed in art spaces including
celebrations or change of seasons before he even begins
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art and the
plotting his coordinates. Text underpins his work’s entirety, as
permanent collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum—he says
words and phrases form the first layer of any grid or parks to
allows him to share part of himself with others that might
come. Those remarks still legible to the viewer once the rest
otherwise go unspoken, making the connections facilitated
are covered by trees or buildings Cooper leaves to chance,
by Visionaries + Voices particularly important. By expressing
lending what he does reveal of himself an organic quality.
this, Cooper also echoes the fact that even the most realistic
Quotes from Animal House and other beloved movies appear
cityscapes function as self-portraits of their creators. Seeing
frequently, as do references to conversations he has overhead
these maps in person, it becomes obvious that Cooper alone
at work. In this sense, these maps follow as much in the
could have made them.
tradition of comic book artists as those of the Renaissance or wry modernists. They blend artistic genres as well as arts
At the February 2016 opening of his exhibit at Intuit, titled
and science.
Zinzinnati Ohio USA: The Maps of Courttney Cooper, Cooper freely made additions to his most recent map with a pen taken
Many of his most joyous works feature the city during
from his pocket. Noting that he’d forgotten to add certain
Oktoberfest, when its residents celebrate its German heritage.
details in the northeastern section, he dismissed the fact
When asked by Krista Gregory, Visionaries + Voices’ exhibition
the piece was hanging in a museum as determinative of the
director, what interests him about German culture, Cooper
work’s degree of finish. Cooper alone decides when a work has
cited a long list of German foods and beers. If a city is a
reached its conclusion, demonstrating his maps are no more
collective, if thousands of people attend a given street festival,
stagnant than his city’s development.
each person in attendance has a slightly different experience, these maps implicitly remind us. While some may have
The need to preserve the face of a place in time has driven
avoided the crowds, Cooper enjoyed himself in a way worth
cartographers from the beginning, though often with more of
remembering. These are landscapes, after all, of his interior
an eye toward commerce than personal self-expression. More
as much as his outer world, a kind of visual diary. They can
than 2,000 years ago, map making had its genesis with
become exercises in empathy if we let them, enhancing the
Phoenicians designing their routes for trade across the
beauty already given.
Mediterranean. Then in the second century A.D., Ptolemy became the first to overlay the globe with lines of latitude and
Maps have long been among humanity’s inventions that wed
longitude. He made travel across seas less precarious while
aesthetics perfectly to function. Like bicycles and umbrellas,
imbuing his drawings with a symmetrical elegance.
their design dazzles the eye while serving a utilitarian purpose. To decorators’ delight, maps continue to do more than help
Yet even while heralding the dawn of science, the beauty of
us travel from point A to B. They reflect the shifting lines of
Ptolemy’s maps still astonishes. The Prussian blue of oceans
a world too awe inspiring not to attempt to render on paper.
dotted with tiny ships forces us to look longer than strictly
Through them, we can see where we’re standing as much as
necessary, pleasing us visually in spite of the maps’
where we’re headed. In this respect as in others, Courttney
inaccuracies. Renaissance renderings later continued to
Cooper’s creations are the rule, not the exception. ■
depict the Four Winds at maps’ corners, infusing cartography with mythology. To the most empiricist-minded observers, these maps’ masterful ornamentation suggests that people subscribing to their share of superstitions are living on these vast landmasses writ in miniature. A human hand, they also
30 THE OUTSIDER
Top: Courttney Cooper. Untitled, 2006. Ballpoint pen on found paper, 40 x 25 in. Arient Family Collection. Bottom: Courttney Cooper. Untitled, 2015. Ballpoint pen on found paper. 35.5 x 67 in. Visionaries + Voices and Western Exhibitions. THE OUTSIDER 31
BOOK REVIEWS From Art Brut to Art without
biographical summary for each of them. The introductory
Boundaries: A Century of
essays contain the most interesting insights and factual
Fascination through the Eyes of
nuggets, however, including the account of the collection’s
Hans Prinzhorn, Jean Dubuffet
10-year American sojourn in the 1950s; of Alfonso Ossorio,
and Harald Szeemann, by Carine
the Filipino artist and collector who hosted it; and of Dubuffet’s
Fol. Skira, Milan, 192 pages,
own experience in the United States.
80 color illustrations, 2015. ISBN: 978-8-8572-2748-1.
For her part, Fol adds enlightening background to the history
Paperback, $45
of art brut and its close relations. She points out, for example, that when the psychiatrist Prinzhorn was selecting asylum
Art Brut in America: The
work to analyze in his important book, “Artistry of the Mentally
Incursion of Jean Dubuffet,
Ill,” he was broadly influenced by his own taste for German
by Valérie Rousseau with a
Expressionism. His book thus featured work that resonated
foreword by Anne-Imelda Radice
with Expressionism whether or not that style was typical of the
and contributions from Jean
art being produced in asylums. In another interesting side-
Dubuffet, Sarah Lombardi,
light she relates how curator Szeemann, who was committed
Kent Minturn and Jill Shaw.
to showing outsider art on an equal footing with the work of
American Folk Art Museum,
trained artists, pulled out of co-curating the show that became
New York, 248 pages, 142 illustrations, 2016.
“Self-Taught Artists of the 20th Century” at the American Folk
ISBN: 978-0-9121-6126-6. Paperback, $45
Art Museum in 1998, because he could not confine himself to outsiders. “I told them to drop the title ‘self-taught’ and just
Jean Dubuffet – inventor of art brut, important painter, master
say ‘art,’ not to be afraid of presenting them alongside the
collector and connoisseur, exploiter, radical, crank. For
greatest since obsession had no borders,” he said.
obvious reasons Jean Dubuffet figures prominently in two recent books about brut, both bringing new insights into the
Prinzhorn shared that perspective, and in some ways his views
nuances of these roles as well as those of other key figures.
come across as most current, more so in some respects than Dubuffet’s, even though Prinzhorn died in 1933 and Dubuffet
Carine Fol, an art historian and museum director formerly with
in 1985. “Prinzhorn was not anti-cultural, nor did he wish for
Art En Marge in Belgium, works thorny issues of definition
asylum creations to be segregated. Instead, he sought to ‘con-
and power that afflict the outsider art world by focusing on
vince reluctant intellectuals…and celebrate his poor minds by
pioneering advocates, Dubuffet along with Hans Prinzhorn and
presenting their work in a Fine Art museum,’” as he wrote in a
Harald Szeemann. Her scholarly text betrays its origins as
letter to the artist Emile Nolde.
a doctoral dissertation composed in another language, and, despite lovely illustrations, it’s not a coffee-table book. But
Dubuffet, by contrast, was adamant that his art brut collection
If you are interested in engaging deeper than usual with the
not be shown together with academic art, refusing loans to
trio’s thinking, it’s well worth the effort of a close look.
Szeemann, among others.
Art Brut in America: The Incursion of Jean Dubuffet is an
But Fol, while clearly more sympathetic to Szeemann’s view,
easier read and more richly illustrated—appropriately so,
still gives an understanding account of Dubuffet’s, as does
since it is an exhibition catalog drawing on the world's greatest
Valérie Rousseau, the American Folk Art Museum’s curator of
collection of self-taught art, Dubuffet’s own. As with most such
20th-century and contemporary art. For Dubuffet, art brut was
catalogs, the work is presented by artist, with the inevitable
not just another tranche of interesting material in the grand
32 THE OUTSIDER
parade of art history but, rather, a philosophical concept,
Categories like art brut and outsider art are ultimately external
something actually separate and separately important from the
creations, imposed on creators by people who have power
work itself. As Rousseau writes, he viewed art brut first and
and influence in the art world. Some labels benefit artists or
foremost as evidence in his case against “official art” and in
are adopted by them as a way of positioning themselves to the
favor of spontaneous innovation, unencumbered by the dead
public. But any attempt to categorize art brings it within a
weight of Cultural tradition. His hope was art brut would actively
restrictive definition, and any sensible artist is likely to
undermine that tradition; cooperating with its exhibits and
eventually chafe against restriction.
celebrations was not only beside the point but anathema. Put another way, labels like outsider art and art brut did not For that view he is something of a tragic hero. His philosophical
arise for the immediate benefit of the artist or their work but
creation has prospected exactly as the kind of art-world
as a framework helpful to those trying to define, understand,
category he rejected. Few followers of art brut share his
explain and, in some cases, market art. Artists should be free
insistence that it remain isolated from mainstream art. Even
to embrace, reject or resent a label as the case may be. They
big museums, prime upholders of Culture, have lately shown
may also take on a label that clearly does not apply, such as
enthusiasm. As Fol writes, “Ultimately, neither Art Brut nor
Chicagoan Lee Godie calling herself a French Impressionist.
the new museum [the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland] had any ruinous effect on official art, instead
Just as art brut was born as a philosophical proposition, as
it became the instrument that enabled Art Brut to gradually
these books show, there also are philosophical objections to
infiltrate mainstream art.” That may be the worst indignity.
any labeling at all. That case has been most forcefully argued by those concerned with the distorting effect of power rela-
Dubuffet’s “anti cultural positions” had power as a critique
tionships where socio-economic status is disproportional—like
but did not lead to his hoped-for “permanent revolution,” a
art-world elites encountering work produced by the economi-
concept he borrowed from Leon Trotsky (it also failed in the
cally disadvantaged, or the insane, for that matter. It does feels
political world). Revolution, in art or politics, wears people out.
unfair for an “us” to define what a “them” are doing.
It is perhaps inevitable for those in post-revolutionary generations to abandon the crankiness of their forebears and just
But short of taking an even more radical position than Dubuffet
enjoy the fruits of progress. Our catholic tastes don’t require
—basically putting art on hold until after a revolution eradicates
us to share Dubuffet’s passionate hostilities and rejection of all
inequality—there needs to be a conceptual model for
that was impure, or the twists and turns of his thinking, which
understanding how the work of self-taught creators connects
was not always consistent, as Fol shows. But we remain the
with the broader stream of human artistic creation. Concepts
beneficiaries of his taste.
like art brut and outsider art remain useful in that effort, at least when they are used to describe, not prescribe, exclude or
There is little to be gained from engaging in polemics with
mystically elevate. Yes, these concepts reflect broader power
a dead man—and much to admire in Dubuffet’s activities
relations, but they mostly take a stand for human creativity
and thinking. But there are reasons to credit contemporary
against indifference—and they help ensure that artists’ creations,
critics who saw him as controlling and self-serving. The petty
and their names, survive—in many cases to the artist’s benefit.
disputes that arose in his efforts to institutionalize art brut will be familiar, and tiresome, to anyone who has had to live with
The concept labels open up artistic expression to interesting
organizational politics, and those disputes may have slowed
groups of marginalized people, even if marginalization is not
the eventual rise of art brut to public prominence.
in itself a qualification or source of artistic value. Similarly, production of expressive objects by people who have had
More concerning is whether Dubuffet in effect exploited art
no training in how to make them is not necessarily magical.
brut’s creators, who, after all, had no say in their conscription
What’s powerful is how these concepts allow art to be found
as artistes brut in service of his theoretical crusades. As Fol
where few bothered to look—before people like Prinzhorn
points out, “Most of the makers of Art Brut…had no particular
and Dubuffet started poking around. The labels are gateways
desire to go against the dominant culture.”
to innovation (the passion for invention at all costs being the THE OUTSIDER 33
most powerful of Dubuffet’s core ideas) and, more to the point,
ed, nor Clifford Still. Claes Oldenburg was, however, and in
aesthetic abundance—far more variety than you would find in
fact represents a bridge to the most famous part of Dubuffet’s
a museum showing only academic art for the same period.
“incursion”—his “Anti-Cultural Positions” lecture at the Arts Club of Chicago, which Oldenburg may have attended.
Not that Dubuffet was free of his own blinders. Both these books include evidence that his need for personal control led
Some would like to draw a direct line from that near-mythical
him to underplay or exclude work that would seem natural
1951 appearance to the founding of Intuit in Chicago 40 years
elements of the art brut canon. His relative disinterest in
later. Jill Shaw’s essay in the Incursions catalog makes that
art environments, for example, may reflect the fact that he
harder. There was certainly an impact on Oldenburg and a
couldn’t actually collect them, and the point of art brut for
handful of other artists in attendance. The visit also affected
Dubuffet was making a point through his collection.
Dubuffet, but more through the lasting relationships he forged with Chicago contemporary art collectors and curators than on
He also wound up dismissing art by children as uninteresting
any nascent Midwestern taste for the self taught. Rousseau for
after initially embracing it. Rousseau cites his explanation in a
her part mentions Intuit founder Don Baum downplaying the
1976 interview with John MacGregor, where he said he viewed
importance of the speech in promoting the idea of art brut.
children as attempting to absorb and emulate “the civilization of adults”—exactly what he was resisting. Children’s art is
Perhaps the most intriguing Chicago connection Shaw cites is
“completely opposed to what interests me, because it’s an effort
with the painter Ivan Albright. The Art Institute of Chicago at the
to assimilate culture.” A cynic might say that what children
time of Dubuffet’s visit had hung one of his paintings adjacent
produced was also beyond the control of his strict conceptual
to an Albright masterpiece, “Into the World There Came a Soul
categories. He could codify art brut and dictate what work
Called Ida.” It’s testament to the Frenchman’s good taste that
belonged within that domain, but hardly so with art by children.
he considered Albright’s painting “worth going to the ends of the earth to see.” Albright was the only Chicago artist Dubuffet was
There is a different and credible way for the art of children to be
interested in meeting at this time, according to Shaw.
incorporated into Dubuffet’s philosophical framework, though. Michel Thevoz, the first director of the Lausanne collection and
That same good taste, as embodied in the art brut collection,
keeper of the art brut flame, appears to have taken a somewhat
may be Dubuffet’s most lasting legacy—making it, perversely,
more inclusive position as a way of explaining the distinction
a very Cultural act of connoisseurship.
between art brut creators and other artists, Fol points out. Trained artists, he said, experience a decisive break between
Equally awkward, Dubuffet’s anti-aestheticism seems very
their childhood creativity and their post-education professional
much in line with academic art’s evolution away from notions
work. For art brut creators, there may be a long hiatus in time
of beauty and emotion in favor of the conceptual. His own
(many start making art relatively late in life) but no equivalent
condemnation of Culture seems very apt for today’s art world.
conceptual break. There is a sort of organic continuity to their
If you’re not an initiate into its dominant discourses (indeed, if
creativity from childhood on.
you’re not comfortable using terms like discourses), it’s easy to sympathize with his alienation: “I think this culture is very
If Dubuffet lost interest in the art of children, he of course
much like a dead language, without anything in common with
was hardly more sympathetic to what he deemed cultural art.
the language spoken on the street. This culture drifts further
In his U.S. incursion he was, not surprisingly, dismissive of
and further from daily life.… It no longer has real and living
the American avant-garde. But then that avant-garde did not
roots,” he wrote in 1951’s Anticultural Positions.
seem to have much interest in his art brut project. Rousseau quotes Osorio as saying in 1953, “Among the artists—I speak
When he puts it that way, his anti-cultural positions, and his
of the ‘avant-garde’—there were several whom it reduced to a
focus on unexpected sources of creative innovation, have a
state of fury…. By strange coincidence those whose work most
great deal of appeal indeed.
closely resembles some aspects of the ‘Art Brut’…are those whom it irritates the most.” Jackson Pollock was not interest34 THE OUTSIDER
— WILLIAM SWISLOW
INTUIT: THE CENTER FOR INTUITIVE AND OUTSIDER ART
Board Cleo Wilson, President Matt Arient Patrick Blackburn
2015 Financials
Richard Bowen
(Year ended December 31, 2015)
Tim Bruce Kevin Cole Ralph Concepcion
Support and Revenue
Susann Craig
Membership Fees.........................................................................$21,200
Cheri Eisenberg
Entrance Fees...............................................................................$12,500
Marjorie Freed
Special Events...............................................................................$35,500
Robert Grossett
Spring Benefit.................................................................................$6,600
Tracy Holmes
Fall Gala.......................................................................................$42,400
Kristi Kangas
Auctions & Raffles.........................................................................$48,500
Scott Lang
Store sales....................................................................................$26,950
Bonnie McGrath
Other............................................................................................. $7,050
Elizabeth Nelson
Earned Revenue........................................................................ $200,700
Benedicta Badia Nordenstahl Jan Petry
Individual Giving...........................................................................$76,850
Phyllis Rabineau
Foundation Grants......................................................................$128,300
Robert A. Roth
Government Grants.........................................................................$4,400
Judy Saslow
Contributions.........................................................................$209,550.00
Jerry Stefl William Swislow
Total Support and Revenue.............................................$410,250.00
David Syrek Phyllis Rabineau David Walega
Expenses
Steven Wang
Staff
Management and general
11%
21%
Fundraising
Debra Kerr, Executive Director Alison Amick Alexis Cuozzo
22%
Joel Javier
Education
Melissa Smith
22%
Christina Stavros
24%
Exhibitions Collection, Robert A. Roth Study Center and other programs
TOTA L PRO G RAMMI NG E XPE NSE S: 6 8 % THE OUTSIDER 35
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UNREAL REALMS JANUARY 20–JUNE 4, 2017
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THE OUTSIDER 37
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Established in June 1991, Intuit is the only nonprofit organization in the United States that is solely dedicated to presenting outsider art — with world class exhibitions; resources for scholars and students; a permanent collection with holdings of nearly 1,100 works of art; the Henry Darger Room Collection, a permanent installation; the Robert A. Roth Study Center, a noncirculating collection with a primary focus in the fields of outsider and contemporary self-taught art; and educational programming for people of all interest levels and backgrounds. 756 N. Milwaukee Ave. Chicago, Illinois 60642
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