A publication of Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art VOLUME 23
FALL 2018
OUTSIDER
THE
THE OUTSIDER 1
VERNACULAR LOFT A PRIVATE ADJUNCT SPACE SHOWCASING SELECTED WORKS IN A RESIDENTIAL SETTING OUTSIDE OF RICCO/MARESCA GALLERY. THE LOFT IS A CURATED ENVIRONMENT THAT CHANGES ON A REGULAR BASIS AND EMBODIES THE GALLERY’S ONGOING MISSION TO PROMOTE CROSSOVER OF OUTSIDER, SELF-TAUGHT, AND VERNACULAR ART INTO THE MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ARENAS.
OPEN BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. PLEASE CONTACT KYLIE RYU: KYLIE@RICCOMARESCA.COM
CONTRIBUTORS Alison Amick Alison Amick is the senior manager for development and exhibitions at Intuit. Alison recently curated Darger + War: Violence and Loss in Self-Taught Art, on view at Intuit Sept. 15-Dec. 10, 2017. Chris Byrne Chris Byrne is the author of the graphic novel The Magician (Marquand Books, 2013). He is co-chair of ART21’s Contemporary Council, and serves on the board of directors of Institute 193, Dallas Contemporary and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Jane Castro Jane Castro is the school and youth programs coordinator at Intuit. She received her bachelor's degree from Northwestern University where she studied anthropology with an academic concentration in cultural history and ethnographic methods. Joshua Willis Joshua Willis is a new transplant to the Chicago area from Georgia where he grew up surrounded by the best in folk and outsider art. While studying art history in college with a specialization in self-taught art, he interned at Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden. Martha Henry Martha V. Henry has worked as a curator, gallery director, appraiser and art advisor for thirty years in American art, specializing in African American artists from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries and self-taught artists. She is recognized throughout the United States as a leading authority on African American art. Rae Pleasant Scholar Rae Pleasant is a PhD candidate at University of Texas at Dallas Aesthetic Studies program in the Department of Arts and Humanities, and the American Folk Art Museum’s 2016–2018 Susan Te Kahurangi King Fellow. Richard D. Mohr Richard D. Mohr is Professor Emeritus of philosophy and of the classics at the University of Illinois—Urbana. His books include God and Forms in Plato, Gay Ideas, and Pottery, Politics, Art. His article on the obsessive ceramics of Illinois’ Brothers Kirkpatrick appeared in the winter 2003 issue of The Outsider. William Swislow An Intuit boxard member and frequent contributor to The Outsider, Bill is a digital business consultant, writer and operator of the cultural website interestingideas.com. Annaleigh Wetzel Annaleigh Wetzel is Intuit’s marketing coordinator, and managing editor of The Outsider.
The Outsider FE AT U R E S
9
Floyd Kuptana, Canada’s Outsider BY RICHARD D. MOHR
17 A Whole New World: An In-Depth Examination of One Susan Te Kahurangi King Work
BY RAE PLEASANT
23 “All I’m Askin’ Is For A Little Respect” Feminism and Outsider Art
BY MARTHA HENRY
D E PA R T M E N T S
5
Intuit's footprint, Chicago and Beyond
26 Education 28 Recent Acquisitions & Promised Gifts 30 Exhibitions 32 Book Reviews
ISBN 978-0-9990010-3-5 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: Susan Te Kahurangi King. Untitled, c. 1965-1975, Oil pastel on paper, 10 x 8 in. On the Back Cover: Detail: Susan Te Kahurangi King. Untitled, c. 1965-1975, Graphite, ink, and felt pen on paper, 16-1⁄2 x 23-1⁄2 in. THE OUTSIDER 1
Image: Crèche, n.d., Teye Rafael Caylos, Mexico, Analine paint and clay, LUMA. The James and Emilia Govan Crèche Collection, 2016:10-37
Art & Faith of the Crèche The Collection of James and Emilia Govan
This perennial holiday favorite returns. See how artists from across the globe depict the story of Mary, Joseph, and the Christ Child.
On view November 13, 2018–January 5, 2019
820 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611 • 312.915.7600 • LUC.edu/luma
Find Your Words AmericanWritersMuseum.org 180 N. Michigan Avenue • Chicago, IL 60601
2 1 FOR
TUESDAYS
FOR ALL 18/19 MAIN SERIES SHOWS
CODE: THEOUTSIDER
Find yourself here. steppenwolf.org | 312-335-1650
WINTER SERIES December 6, 8 + 9, 2018 danc(e)volve returns featuring works by Alice Klock and Hubbard Street Choreographic Fellows Rena Butler and Florian Lochner
DISCOUNTED RATES for groups of 10 or more!
hubbardstreetdance.com/winter 312-635-3799 Winter Series Sponsors
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Colleen and Andrew Batcheler
Hubbard Street Dancer Craig D. Black Jr.. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.
Performing at
4 THE OUTSIDER
INTUIT'S FOOTPRINT, CHICAGO AND BEYOND
2018 has been a year of remarkable transformation in the world of outsider art. With exhibitions from Outliers and American Vanguard Art at the National Gallery to History Refused to Die: Highlights from the Souls Grown Deep
CHICAGO... EMBRACED OUTSIDER ART MORE ROBUSTLY AND EARLIER THAN OTHERS
Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a wider audience than ever before was exposed to our under-recognized genre. With the passing of three important members of the outsider art community, Phyllis Kind, David Philpot and James Yood, we mourn the loss of their keen insights and creative spirits. And with the Terra Foundation for American Art’s daring initiative, Art Design Chicago, Intuit seized the opportunity to showcase Chicago as home to art and artists on the edge, paying homage to the U.S. city that embraced outsider art more robustly and earlier than others. As Intuit highlights Chicago’s role in advancing this art, the museum is simultaneously advancing. Intuit’s growth is most clearly indicated in the accelerating capital campaign. The recent addition of the museum building’s second floor doubles the museum footprint, transforming the museum by providing space for Intuit to exhibit its permanent collection and dedicating space for an education center. A new, accessible
façade will provide a powerful first impression, revealing Intuit’s story and the art-making it has witnessed. The interior’s modernized galleries will allow guests to discover and experience the innovative special exhibits for which Intuit is renowned alongside art from our growing collection, highlighted on page 28. Beyond its physical transformation in Chicago, Intuit is making waves on a national scale. This year, the American Folk Art Museum is honoring Intuit with its Annual Visionary Award, highlighting the roles of Cleo Wilson, Intuit’s past executive director and past board president, and me. We’re accepting this award on behalf of everyone involved with Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. Because of our members, guests, donors, volunteers and other champions of this art, Intuit is a leader in presenting outsider and self-taught art. As always, thank you for your generous support, and cheers to what we will continue to build together. — DEBRA KERR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Photos by Intuit and Cheri Eisenberg.
THE OUTSIDER 5
Extended by popular demand! Now at Intuit through February 10, 2019 Don’t miss seeing this in Chicago, before the exhibition travels to Paris, Heidelberg, Lausanne and Amsterdam. art.org
Visit the beloved art environment lo cated in the heart of Phi ladelphia
phillymagicgardens.org
Curiouser and Curiouser: Outsider and Fine Art. Extraordinary Objects. Saturday, December 1 | catalog online November 12
Royal Robertson, Journey Into Past Lives, 1992 (double sided)
THE OUTSIDER 7
Floyd Kuptana (Canadian, b. 1964), Argh, 2016. Acrylic and collage on masonite. 24 x 13 in. Photo: Eron Boyd, Gallery Arcturus, Toronto. 8 THE OUTSIDER
FLOYD KUPTANA, CANADA’S OUTSIDER
BY RICHARD D. MOHR
An artist from the northernmost fringe of the continental
The two-dimensional work is self-taught, edgy in content and
Americas conjures apocalyptic wonders that rattle even the
sourcing, “out there,” bold in effects, and, by turns, frenetic
most staid of minds.
and funky, fearful and funny, cosmic and gritty—visionary. A monster flies across the horizon with talons set to shred the
In 1964, at the height of the Cold War, 250 miles above the
world. A revolving galaxy cuts into a giant golden skull, whose
Arctic Circle, the artist Floyd Kuptana was born in the shadow
lamprey-like teeth are poised to bleed the universe dry. And
of the Cape Parry Distant Early Warning Line station as
shades of Edgar Allen Poe or sci-fi’s Borg, faces peer out from
it stood ever alert to thermonuclear incoming. In parallel,
within other people’s bodies. To quote the Borg: “Resistance is
he was born into Inuit cultural heritage, whose principal
futile. You will be assimilated.”
divinities—the sea goddess, Sedna, and the weather god, Sila—are ever bent on revenge against humans. So this story’s
Kuptana learned stone carving in the North and in the
hero lives, we might say, under twin signs of impending
traditional way—from relatives. In 1993, he visited the
apocalypse, and that feeling pervades the paintings and
Canadian South for the first time and placed work in a national
collages which, over the last six years, he has added to an
exhibition of Inuit carvings. Three years on, he moved
ongoing body of work in stone.
permanently to the Toronto catchment, where he successfully sells carvings, but lives a rough life near, sometimes on, the (Cont. page 13)
THE OUTSIDER 9
WHAT DRIVES KUPTANA'S WORK? DIVING DEEPER INTO THE ARTIST'S LIFE
No surprise, Floyd Kuptana is lonely and, because of this,
And he is primed to arrogance and anger. Once, when things
he talks obsessively. Looping endlessly through his phone
were not going well at a gallery opening, were devolving toward
conversations runs a refrain, at once comic and neurotic,
violence, and the police had to be called, he stormed out just
“You have to talk with me five more minutes, and, if I get angry,
in advance of their arrival, shouting on his way out the door,
ten.” Yet, for all the verbiage, he never discusses the methods
“I am God.” And when the anger boils over into violence, all
and aims of his work—he cannot be coaxed or lured to do so.
the contradictions and tensions come to a head. He begins to cry, just before he starts throwing punches.
Still, scattered remarks, behaviors and self-portraits hint at his sense of his work and self. These hints all point toward the
A promising sign or not, it’s hard to tell. As with many another
very tensions and contradictions that one finds in the work
outsider artist, one has to wonder, if his demons ever go
more broadly but, in addition, represent a clash between
away, will his frenetic, majestic, haunting art go with them? ■
traditional Inuit values and the brusk norms of contemporary urban life and of white culture more generally. In traditional Inuit culture, the greatest virtues are moderation, humility and circumspection. Second only to success at hunting, humility is the principal mark of manliness. Pride, arrogance and meanness are cardinal sins. The prime directive is “Never in anger.” When presented with a close-reading of “I Like Picasso,” one trending toward the general interpretation of his work offered here, Kuptana simply and sheepishly responded, “But it is just a painting about me.” He then asked for another cup of coffee, his sixth. In this reply, he was not tacitly endorsing a grand expressionist vision of the individual artist as font of meaning; rather, he seemed to be honestly puzzled about how any universal meaning could be gleaned from such an idiosyncratic work as his. Kuptana, the humble. Kuptana, the man. In marked contrast, all of his self-portraits are boastful. In them, he casts himself as cosmic warrior, mythical being, or king—the fantasies of white boys gaming. Floyd Kuptana, (Canadian, b. 1964), I Like Picasso, 2015. Acrylic on artist board. 14 x 11 in. Photo: Robert W. Switzer.
10 THE OUTSIDER
Floyd Kuptana (Canadian, b. 1964). Primal Gesture, 2010. Acrylic on wooden coffee-table top. 47 x 22 in. Photo: Eron Boyd, Gallery Arcturus, Toronto.
THE OUTSIDER 11
Floyd Kuptana (Canadian, b. 1964), Shaman, 1991. Brazilian soapstone and bone with stone and metal inlay. 5 x 5 x 5 in. Photo: Robert W. Switzer.
12 THE OUTSIDER
streets. Never without a cigarette, almost never without a bottle, he cycles through rehab centers, public-housing units, emergency rooms, holding cells and “saviors.” Born in this fraught atmosphere, his career in two-dimensional art sprang forth explosively. One day in a gallery, he observed another artist drawing charcoal sketches of some of his carvings. These drawings jolted him. He went home, got some paint, tore apart a coffee table, painted the top of it, nails still sticking out the sides and voilà—Primal Gesture, his first painting. Many others spread across equally raw substrates— found wood, scrap cardboard, foam core, playing cards, whatever’s at hand. Though his paintings and collages are self-consciously created as art, rather than, say, to give body to a private vision or fulfill a divine calling, the work is spiritually infused. Indeed, hardly ever has the arrival of the spirit world into everyday life
Piet Corr (Canadian, 1953–2018), Floyd Kuptana, 2015. Digital photograph. Courtesy of Eron Boyd, Gallery Arcturus, Toronto.
been as scary as in his two-dimensional work—for most, scary to the point of disturbing, off-putting, even horrifying.
But the source of Kuptana’s horror lies even deeper than
In consequence, his paintings and collages have been
the works’ ability to disorient and threaten. The pedal point
rejected out of hand by the very galleries and auction houses
of Kuptana’s horror is eeriness. His is a dry horror—not the
that regularly carry his sculptures.
horror of gore, of the abject, of wet stuff that clings and nauseates. Rather, the engine of Kuptana’s horror is the
The carvings, too, are scary—but charmingly so, like
uncanny, that unsettling sense prompted by skewed
Halloween, while the two-dimensional works press the
doublings—in Kuptana’s case, twinned overlapping faces,
carvings’ energy, wonder, intensity and strangeness
bodies within bodies, emergent profiles and other
past a tipping point and suspend the viewer over a
spectral pairings. Two-headed dogs are favorites. Such
bottomless crevasse of unease.
undead-ringers make manifest the return of the repressed on a grand scale. They are stutterings of the unconscious,
Yet comedy, too—variously startling, whimsical and cute—
betokening a structural failure of people to keep their
enters the frames. Kuptana’s uses of negative spaces
aggressive passions in check and out of mind—and not just
to lay out dithering arrays of faces in profile create visual
any aggressive passions, not the erotic ones, but, rather,
treasure hunts for the attentive. He often overlaps goofy faces.
that half of the subconscious which is a drive both to kill
He slyly appropriates white folks’ popular culture, distinctive
oneself and everyone else, what Freud calls the death wish.
ideas (like universal surveillance), social forms (like gender
Kuptana’s works are portals into and conduits out of such
bending) and art movements. Da Vinci, van Gogh and
foundational annihilation. The impending apocalypse
Picasso put in cameos. Album covers, advertisements
lies within. More than fearsome, the paintings saturate the
and cartoons stud the work. (Can you spot Snoopy poking
mind with dread. ■
into I Like Picasso?) Comedy, especially when complementing the horror and filling out the canvas, leaves no spot on the floor where the disoriented viewer can plant a foot to keep the room from spinning.
THE OUTSIDER 13
DRAWING PRODIGY DISCOVERED DOWN UNDER CHRIS BYRNE ON SUSAN TE KAHURANGI KING’S REMARKABLE RISE IN THE CONTEMPO RARY ART WORLD
The artist Gary Panter introduced me to Susan Te Kahurangi
By spending time viewing King’s drawings and their chronology,
King’s work one day during lunch. According to Gary, there
it’s possible to discover how seemingly "non-objective"
was no distance between the artist and her drawings—they
concentric shapes have evolved from the truncated vestiges
constituted direct and unmediated expression.
of appropriated cartoon characters. It’s also possible to find visual lists or indexes of certain objects, which get reconfigured
I was enthused to meet Susan during my first trip to New
and distorted beyond recognition in subsequent pictures.
Zealand. By then, publisher Ed Marquand (Lucia | Marquand,
What becomes evident is the rigorousness of King’s vocabulary,
Seattle) and I had already exhibited a chronological sampling of
regardless of and indifferent to the time and medium.
her sketchbooks in Paris. Even before having the opportunity to examine the extent of the artist’s oeuvre, I was convinced
There was a roughly 15-year phase when King ceased drawing
that Susan was among the greatest draftspersons and
altogether. She resumed in 2008, fueled by renewed interest in
image-makers ever.
her work, not long before the filming of Pictures of Susan (directed by Dan Salmon of Octopus Pictures Limited, 2012),
During this time, I had become familiar with the personal story
picking up nearly where she left off.
behind the pictures. Susan was born in 1951 in Te Aroha, New Zealand, as the second eldest in a family of 12 children.
In 2016, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, organized
“Te Kahurangi” literally translated means "the treasured one”
a survey of the artist’s work, accompanied by a published
in Maori.
monograph. That same year, the American Folk Art Museum in New York established the Susan Te Kahurangi King Fellowship
By the age of five, Susan’s ability to speak was in decline, and,
Program. In 2017, the American Folk Art Museum included
sometime between seven and eight, she stopped speaking
King’s drawings in the group show Vestiges & Verse: Notes from
completely. As her inability to verbally communicate became
the Newfangled Epic.
more apparent, her acumen for and commitment to drawing heightened. By the age of seven, she showed an extraordinarily
King’s artworks are represented in significant national and
precocious talent. In 1960, the family moved to Auckland
international public collections, including the American
to enroll Susan in a, then, newly-established special school,
Folk Art Museum in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
which she attended for close to three decades.
the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Chartwell Collection (Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tãmaki) and the Wallace
Susan’s family—beginning with her maternal grandmother,
Arts Trust, Auckland, New Zealand.
Myrtle Murphy, and continuing today through sister Petita Cole’s selfless dedication—have cared for and preserved, not
Susan currently lives with family in Hamilton, New Zealand,
only her work, but the anecdotes and artifacts that become
where she continues her practice as an artist. ■
so important for present and future scholarship, as academic interpretations will certainly accumulate around her work.
14 THE OUTSIDER
Above: Susan Te Kahurangi King. Untitled, c. 2009-2016. Ink on paper, 11-1/4 x 16-1/2 in. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. James S. Crown Below: Susan Te Kahurangi King. Untitled, c. 2014. Ink on paper, 12 x 15 in. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. James S. Crown THE OUTSIDER 15
Susan Te Kahurangi King. Untitled, c. 1965-1975, Oil pastel on paper, 10 x 8 in. 16 THE OUTSIDER
A WHOLE NEW WORLD: AN IN-DEPTH EXAMINATION OF ONE SUSAN TE KAHURANGI KING WORK BY RAE PLEASANT
As the opportunity to meet Susan Te Kahurangi King (b. 1951,
a person of color for a few steps because these encounters
New Zealand) edged closer to reality, I wondered, ‘Has she
were rare for her. Rewinding representations and perceptions
met someone with an afro hairstyle and brown skin like mine
of Africans and Melanesians to the decades of King’s youth
before?’ I wondered how she would express herself around me,
provides insight into the societal environment that may have
other than through her art making. When I finally met her, King
influenced her artwork. As a child, young King would have been
had already been diagnosed with severe autism as an adult.
passively exposed to adult conversations or comments and to
Though she experienced developmental delays, like declining
children’s merchandise or programming. These subtle and overt
speech since the age of four, her artistic skills flourished and
influences likely impacted her observations of the world, and
were encouraged by her Grandma Myrtle, among others. I was
the resulting artwork is a reflection of the times pushed through
told that, as a child, King would occasionally stare at or follow
the filter of her powerful imagination.
THE OUTSIDER 17
Susan Te Kahurangi King. Untitled, 1975-1980. Crayon, color pencil, and graphite on paper, 9.45 x 11.42 in. A30703. Long-term loan to American Folk Art Museum Archives courtesy of Chris Byrne and the artist. 18 THE OUTSIDER
Among the family ephemera, which supplements our understanding of King’s formative years, Grandma Myrtle records in Diary No. 1 that, after a bout of illness in 1956, King began to draw pictures after happily receiving her ‘black golliwog’ and colored pencils. Offenses or caricatures were wrapped in adorability like toys, softening them to the point of normalization. As King’s speech declined, Grandma Myrtle recorded words that young King said with clarity, which included ‘nigger’ after a visit to the historic Auckland shopping center, Queen’s Arcade, in 1956. Grandma Myrtle records King’s drawings in 1964 in Diary No. 11 as the ‘Black Noddy’ and ‘Nigger one’ and ‘E. clown & umbrella & nigger baby in a pram in black & white’. In addition to these pieces, a unique artwork from the long-term loan of King’s work to the American Folk Art Museum features two sets of brown-skinned figures existing in a swirling landscape. Dated between 1975 and 1980, this image represents the variety of tools and techniques King used throughout her lifetime within one frame. Crayon, colored pencil and pencil combine by way of drawing, coloring and marking to create
Above: Barks, Carl. “Adventure Down Under, 1947”. Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: Christmas on Bear Mountain. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphic Books, 2013. Pg. 114.
figures and designs that merge and morph into one another. Two figures outlined in delicate pencil with red cloth drawn around their waist sit and stand in an abstracted pool of water
Below: Barks, Carl. “Darkest Africa, 1948”. Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: The Old Castle’s Secret. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphic Books, 2013. Pg. 89.
holding giant popsicles or ice blocks. Their brown skin is filled in with waxy crayon, as are their red lips, while their fluffy hair is made in pencil, with one figure having a bone through it. In the
scheme seem to reference athletes like Olympic runners, or,
late 1940s, two Donald Duck comic books, titled Darkest Africa
more particularly, Harlem Globetrotters. King did not depict
and Adventure Down Under, featured caricatures and tropes
the basketball, but aptly illustrated the act of dribbling and
interacting with Donald and his nephews. Donald Duck, partly
movement. The Harlem Globetrotters had their own comic book
covered by a blanket of color, makes a brief appearance in
by the Hanna-Barbera team, published by Gold Key Comics
King’s picture. There is a strong possibility that King saw such a
between 1971 and 1975. On occasion, these realistically drawn
comic, because she consumed a large amount of Donald Duck
players may have appeared in MAD Magazine, to which King
titles as a youth. In Darkest Africa, the people are referred to
had access. Although, the MAD influence was not as persistent
as ‘rough savages’ holding long spears. King’s figures lack this
in her work as Disney or Looney Tunes, it serves as a connection
deliberate dehumanization, and she has reimagined the story
worthy of further research.
into an innocent tableau with surrealistic lightheartedness. A fascinating aspect of King’s work is its relationship to animation Another brown figure in the picture wears yellow and is
despite her observations of two-dimensional illustrations. She
crouched inside a cavern of blue crayon with the head of a
appears to pack the action and emotion conveyed in the cells of
bird covered up by a cloud of color. She hovers above a set of
a comic book or in the pages of a magazine into a single frame.
four figures that progressively dissolve from right to left.
Most of what King draws appears derived from something she
At first glance, it appears to be a singular body moving through
has observed, like illustrations and toys, or experienced from life.
a distorted time-space. Their tongues stick out, and their arms
Imagination and humor fill in the gaps, blending the familiar with
are extended with broken wrists. The sportswear and color
the unreal. King’s drawings come from a place of intense curiosity,
THE OUTSIDER 19
The photo above, taken around 1956 by Susan's father, Doug King, shows Susan with her younger siblings—with a packet of “Nigger” biscuits on the party table. It was not uncommon to see or hear the word “Nigger” in New Zealand in the 1950s, 1960s and, even, into the 1970s. I remember hearing the term often, in a wide range of contexts, and to my memory, very rarely was it intended or seen as being derogatory. I also remember “Nigger” products; there used to be a “Nigger Brown” shoe polish and “Nigger” biscuits. The presence of the term “Nigger” in King’s grandma's diary is purely descriptive and represents common vocabulary of that era. The diaries were personal—the intended audience being grandma herself. —Petita Cole (Susan's sister)
and this picture is no exception. The figures appear to be derived from comics or imagery of the day depicting people of color and in many cases, these influences were caricatures. Her depiction of the brown-skinned figures is consistent with her other figurative illustrations, in style and composition, that are inspired by reinterpreting comics. However, King has stripped away the overt mocking that once bound such characters and built up extreme fantasy all around them. She has placed these figures in a world all their own where tableaus are suspended in space, time warps the body and narratives take an unexpected twist. ■
Diary #1 Entries from 1954, 55, 56. Grandma Myrtle. Pgs. 1, 7, 20. Loaned to American Folk Art Museum Archives courtesy of Chris Byrne and Petita Cole. Diary #11 Agricultural Time and Wages Book No. 7. Grandma Myrtle. Pgs. 77, 78. Loaned to American Folk Art Museum Archives courtesy of Chris Byrne and Petita Cole.
20 THE OUTSIDER
Susan Te Kahurangi King. Untitled, c. 1965-1975, Oil pastel on paper, 10 x 8 in.
THE OUTSIDER 21
Sister Gertrude Morgan (American, 1900 -1980). Revelations, ca. 1970. Pen, poster paint on paper, 22 in. x 28 in. Collection of Intuit: The Center for Outsider Art, Gift of Susann Craig, 2002.4 22 THE OUTSIDER
“ALL I’M ASKIN’ IS FOR A LITTLE RESPECT” FEMINISM AND OUTSIDER ART BY MARTHA HENRY
“Why have there been no great women artists?,” the late art
such as quilts, embroidery, sewing and hook rugs. During the
historian Linda Nochlin asked in her 1971 groundbreaking
1970s, some contemporary artists, both male (Gilliam, Loving,
essay of the same name. Her answer? The inherent privilege
Overstreet) and female (Pindell, Schapiro, Heilmann), who had
assumed by the white male Western art world had systematically
grown up watching their mothers sew, began appropriating
shut out women artists for centuries. The art world reverently
stitchery into their art. Quickly, they were deemed innovators
bestows “genius” on male mainstream artists, like Van Gogh,
by art critics, even earning this “new” process-based style the
Pollack and Picasso, and male self-taught artists, like Dial,
moniker of “Informalism” by Carter Ratcliff; whereas, women,
Darger and Ramirez. Historically, women artists were anonymous
who had embroidered and quilted for centuries, remained
or had masculine pseudonyms and, until the mid-19th century,
mostly anonymous, and their work sold for little money.2 The
rarely used their given feminine names. Yet, Nochlin argued,
trajectory for Gee’s Bend quilters changed in the late 1990s
ranking women as outsiders gives them a unique perspective
when William Arnett of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation
from which to analyze gender bias and skill.
began organizing critically-acclaimed exhibitions of their quilts
1
in major American art museums instead of craft museums. Women’s work traditionally falls under the category of
Simultaneously, Arnett secured gallery representation for the
handicrafts and centers around the home. These works include
artists to handle sales that brought the quilters well-deserved
painting china, gardening and, most prevalent, stitchery—
fame and money.
THE OUTSIDER 23
The definition of outsider and self-taught art implies inclusion
oppression, patriarchy, sexual objectification, discrimination,
and authenticity, so it is surprising to discover that the field
stereotyping, anonymity, class and identity, conditions of which
actually excludes women paralleling the mainstream art world.
most women have experienced some, if not all. Since the
After viewing Alternative Guide to the Universe, a major 2013
1970s, feminist art criticism has continuously critiqued the
outsider art survey at London’s Hayward Gallery, critic Mostafa
institutionalized sexism of Western art history, museums and
Heddaya observed that the artists were 91.3% male. He
galleries. The question becomes: What types of art are worthy of
remarked, “Unlike the context for the Guerilla Girls’ historic
being bought, sold and collected? Which art genres are deemed
condemnations of overwhelmingly male curatorial skews at the
museum-worthy?9 Can a female aesthetic be defined?
likes of the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, the premise of outsider art hinges upon an ostensibly
Many outsider women artists are drawn to art making for
ungendered status marginalization. Though it’s impossible to
spiritual self-actualization and view their work as God calling.
fully diagnose here the condition that has guaranteed
Feminist artist Missionary Mary L. Proctor affirms her life
institutional and commercial recognition for an almost exclusively
mission is getting “a message out to broken womens, a message
male cadre of ‘outsiders,’ the modern conception of productive
to help and glorify them. I’m going to get a message out so men
madness is one overwhelmingly dominated by the narrative of
can search their hearts, learn to respect us and treat us the
the male madman whose insanity is not rudely clinical but
right way.”10 If there is a feminist aesthetic in outsider art, it is
intellectual, essential, and artistically or aesthetically liberated.”3
respecting and empowering women. ■
Heddaya’s observation is borne out after taking a cursory look at how many self-taught women artists, compared to male artists, are represented in: galleries (20.6%); the Outsider Art Fair (24.6%); Christie’s Outsider auctions (16.3%); Intuit: The
1
Feminist Art Criticism, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_art_criticism
2
“Affinities in Abstraction: Textiles, Otherness and Painting in the 1970s” by Jenni Sorkin, Outliers and the American Vanguard, IL: University of Chicago
Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art (19.5%); and outsider art anthologies (24.5%).4 The percentage of inclusion for women
Press and D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2018, pages 96-100. “Why was a Major Outsider Art Survey 91.3% Male?” by Mostaffa Heddaya,
3
artists in the outsider art world is less than the mainstream
Hyperallergic, September 11, 2013: https://hyperallergic.com/82768/why-
contemporary art world, where 25% to 35% of women artists have gallery representation. Certainly, after 50 years of the
was-a-major-outsider-art-survey-91-3-male/ I looked at the artist rosters of four top galleries that focus on outsider art;
4
eleven galleries exhibiting for two consecutive years (2016-2017) at the
feminist art movement, the numbers on gender disparity are
Outsider Art Fair in New York; three years (2016-2018) of Christie’s auctions;
discouraging.
and four anthologies on outsider art. Staff at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive
5
and Outsider Art provided me with collection lists and graphs. “Curators Debate the Pros and Cons of All-Women’s Art Shows”, by
5
How can the outsider art world address gender disparity?
Malado Baldwin, Hyperallergic, September 20, 2018. https://hyperallergic. com/460780/curators-debate-the-pros-and-cons-of-all-womens-art-shows/
In recent years, and especially in the wake of the #metoo
Ibid.
6
movement, mainstream institutions and galleries have hosted
“Why was a Major Outsider Art Survey 91.3% Male?” by Mostaffa Heddaya,
7
Hyperallergic, September 11, 2013: https://hyperallergic.com/82768/why-
all-female exhibitions, but there is a lot of debate on how effective they are in the long term. Some argue that all-women
was-a-major-outsider-art-survey-91-3-male/ Feminism, Aesthetics, and Art Education by Elizabeth Garber, Pennsylvania
8
shows contribute to tokenism, while others reason that they are a necessary corrective to being ignored for centuries.
10
Another suggestion is to openly acknowledge gender disparity in exhibition statements, wall text and labels and address the issue in conversation and interviews whenever it comes up.
7
People understand the world and interpret art through the lens of their gender (or the gender with which they identify).8 Feminist art criticism, like feminist theory, explores themes of
24 THE OUTSIDER
State University, www.jstor.org (1992) Feminist Art Criticism, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_art_criticism
9
6
“Mary L. Proctor” interviewed by William Arnett, Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art, by William Arnett and Paul Arnett, Volume 2, GA: Tinwood Books, 2001, page 453.
Above: Pauline Simon (American, 1898-1976)). The Ocean, n.d. Oil on canvas, 28 x 40 in. Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Gift of Phyllis Kind. 2006.17.2 Below: Mary Eveland (American, 1896-1981). Butterflies and Moth, ca. 1976-1980. Oil on canvas, 24 x 36 in. Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, gift of Merle Glick, 2007.12.9
HENRY DARGER RESOURCE KIT FOR EDUCATORS
Artist Henry Darger’s life and works have been a staple to Intuit’s Teacher Fellowship Program since its inception 22 years ago. In many ways, Darger is the ideal artist to integrate into the classroom. His prolific body of visual and written work provides a giant library of exemplars spanning from epic battle scenes to the fantastical Blengiglomenean serpents. His time in Chicago encompassed some of the city’s most historic and significant events. On field trips, students of all ages ignite with a sense of wonder walking into Intuit’s re-created Henry Darger Room. These meaningful introductions and explorations of Darger have proved an effective gateway to the genre of outsider art. But how could this experience be extended outside of our school programs? Outside of Chicago? How might we authentically open up Darger’s epic good-versus-evil novel, The Realms of the Unreal, for audiences across the country and throughout the world? To answer this question, the Henry Darger Resource Kit for Educators research team first convened in January 2017. With generous funding support from the Terra Foundation for American Art, Intuit education staff, outstanding Teacher Fellow alumni and leading Darger scholars began mapping out the Resource Kit. Throughout 2017, Intuit’s year-long 125th birthday celebration of “Chicago’s Henry Darger,” conversations developed into content. Chicago Public School teachers and Teacher Fellows with middle school and high school experience collaborated to design what would be the final nine lesson plans included in the Resource Kit.
26 THE OUTSIDER
Select student works from Emiliano Zapata Elementary Academy created from lesson plans in the Henry Darger Resource Kit.
These mix- and match-able lessons tackle major themes in
During the lesson, students even had the opportunity to create
Darger’s oeuvre through interdisciplinary and contemporary
their own watercolors, just like Henry Darger had done decades
approaches. Supported by classroom handouts, resources and
before them. The class came to visit the museum, stepped
rubrics, these themes include gender fluidity and expression,
inside the Henry Darger Room Collection, and viewed Darger
resolving conflict through empathy, interpreting identity, and the
works up close and in person. The student work produced
relationship between mood and environment.
undeniable results. In the creation and composition of the works, it is evident how deeply personal the narratives are. The
Before the online launch of the Resource Kit, first-year Teacher
students’ use of text, altered scale and images in untraditional
Fellow Nikki Woloshyn accepted the opportunity to pilot the
contexts are distinctly unique, both from one another as well as
content in her classroom. As the visual arts teacher at Emiliano
the Darger exemplars which had initially inspired the project.
Zapata Elementary Academy, Woloshyn was already working with music teacher Grace Urrutia to bring outsider art into their
In May 2018, the Henry Darger Resource Kit for Educators was
classrooms through their Teacher Fellowship Program-developed
officially launched on Intuit’s website for free public download.
lesson, Obsessions, Repetitions & Vocalizations. From the
Since its release, users from California to Maine and from
Resource Kit, Woloshyn chose to implement Exploring Safe
the Philippines to Brazil have accessed the Resource Kit and
Spaces and Scary Places, a lesson in which students explore
helped achieve Intuit’s goal to introduce outsider art and artists
how different settings can evoke certain feelings before creating
to new audiences. This project has expanded Intuit’s education
their own visual narrative.
reach to a wider-than-ever audience, and the education team is excited to continue to see the results. As more classrooms
“My students absolutely loved this lesson. They showed so
across the country are introduced to the power of outsider art,
much intrigue surrounding Darger's backstory and imagery.
a new generation of artists and art enthusiasts are invited to
They dove head first into mixed media exploration and really
challenge the traditional notions of fine art. ■
embraced a variety of techniques. It was amazing to see them work with autonomy and be so open about their themes and
— JANE CASTRO
feelings,” Woloshyn said.
THE OUTSIDER 27
SIGNIFICANT ART DONATIONS TAKE INTUIT’S COLLECTION TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Each year, Intuit receives generous donations of outsider artworks to bolster its permanent collection. The museum does not have dedicated funds for purchasing art, and instead typically only accepts donated pieces. The curatorial and exhibitions team at Intuit acknowledge how exceptional it is to have these champions of self-taught art as part of our community. With every new acquisition, Intuit moves closer and closer to fulfilling its mission of celebrating the power of outsider art. Thank you, donors, for accelerating Intuit’s journey toward premier outsider art museum status. Intuit showcases these donated works regularly on its Collection Highlights wall, where new and existing contributions are displayed. Recently, this wall was dominated by six incredible women outsider artists who have contributed immensely to this genre: Consuelo "Chelo" González Amézcua, Madge Gill, Lee Godie, Laura Craig McNellis, Nellie Mae Rowe and Betty Zakoian. One of the advantages of last year’s purchase of the second floor is that Intuit will be able to open two galleries dedicated to the regular exhibition of its collection, once its capital campaign goals and renovation are achieved. ■ Madge Gill (English, 1882–1961). Untitled, n.d. Ink on poster board, 25 x 20 in. Collection of Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. Museum purchase with funds provided by Dale Taylor and Angela Lustig. 2018.1.1
28 THE OUTSIDER
— ANNALEIGH WETZEL
Nellie Mae Rowe (American, 1900-1982). Profile of a Woman, 1978. Crayon and pencil on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 in. Collection of Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, gift of Yolanda Saul, 2018.2.1 THE OUTSIDER 29
INTUIT’S ART DESIGN CHICAGO ENTRY MAKES HISTORY AS IT TRAVELS TO EUROPE
From early 2019 to mid-2021, Intuit will bring the Chicago
Henry Darger and Mr. Imagination, both of whom are also
tradition of outsider art study and appreciation to receptive
represented in Chicago Calling.
audiences in Europe with its first internationally traveling exhibit, Chicago Calling: Art Against the Flow. Comprised of 79 works
The exhibition then moves to a venue with a long pedigree
by 10 Chicago artists, the show shines a light on the city’s
in outsider art: the Prinzhorn Collection in Heidelberg. Now
longstanding, if not always recognized, position as one of the
open to the public, it was once the personal collection of
epicenters of outsider or non-mainstream art, a story highlighted
Hans Prinzhorn, a psychiatrist and art historian who, in the
in this exhibition for Art Design Chicago, a spirited celebration
first decades of the 20th century, became one of the earliest
of the unique and vital role Chicago plays as a crossroads of
scholars to seriously study art created by those institutionalized
creativity and commerce. European artists, doctors and scholars
with mental illnesses. The collection boasts upwards of 5,000
were among the first to recognize the significance of art created
pieces by nearly 500 patients from the University of Heidelberg
by those with little or no contact with the mainstream art world,
Psychiatric Clinic, where Prinzhorn worked. Despite its near
so it is fitting that Chicago Calling will be displayed at European
destruction by the Nazis as “degenerate art,” the works became
organizations dedicated to outsider art—or art brut, per the
highly influential in the field of outsider art, inspiring modern
European term—in Paris, Heidelberg, Lausanne and Amsterdam.
artists such as Jean Dubuffet. The Prinzhorn Collection still
As the show travels the continent, a fascinating exchange of
resides at the University of Heidelberg in a former lecture hall
ideas will emerge between Chicago and these equally important
converted in 2001 to a research and exhibition space.
centers of the genre across the Atlantic. The Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne will next host Chicago Chicago Calling kicks off its grand tour in Paris at La Halle
Calling beginning in March 2020. Opened in 1976, the museum
Saint Pierre on 23 March 2019. Housed in a building by the
has its roots in the vast personal collection of Jean Dubuffet,
pioneering 19th century French architect Victor Baltard, the
who coined the term “art brut” (French for “raw art”) to
Halle Saint Pierre is a museum and gallery devoted to
describe works by those he saw as untainted by the dominant
contemporary as well as folk and outsider art. Its naive art
culture, artists who included prisoners, spiritual mediums and
collection consists of more than 600 works in various mediums,
psychiatric patients. Today, the museum hosts many temporary
many of which were donated by publisher and collector
exhibitions, including joint projects with other institutions
Max Fourney. Past exhibits include last year’s retrospective of
dedicated to outsider art and art brut. As the first European
the art of French self-taught artist Gilbert Peyre and Raw Vision:
museum to include major works by Henry Darger in its holdings,
25 Years of Art Brut, the 2013 celebration of the notable British
the Collection de L’Art Brut “looks forward to welcoming the
magazine’s anniversary, which featured works by Chicago artists
exhibition” and the opportunity to “enable a dialogue” between
30 THE OUTSIDER
Inside shot of Outsider Art Museum © Courtesy of Outsider Art Museum
the works by Darger and “other creators hailing from the same
one of Chicago’s cultural gems, composed of some of the city’s
North American city… known for [its] good number of artists
finest offerings of outsider art, going abroad to the continent
working on the fringes of mainstream art,” said Director Sarah
where some of the earliest articulations of the genre first
Lombardi.
emerged. As Chicago Calling journeys across Europe, many differences will become obvious in how the various regions
The last stop on the tour is the Outsider Art Museum in
conceptualize and enjoy outsider art—a topic exemplified by
Amsterdam, September 2020-March 2021. Since its 2016
the robust conversation on the terms for describing the genre—
opening by Queen Maxima, the museum has been the only
but, so, too, will the commonalities be revealed, perhaps most
one of its kind in the Netherlands to display works by leading
meaningfully through the shared dedication to inclusivity in the
outsider artists both Dutch and international. The result of a
arts that defines Intuit and its European counterparts.
partnership between Haarlem’s Dolhuys Museum of the Mind, the healthcare organization Cordaan and Hermitage Amsterdam,
Chicago Calling: Art Against the Flow and its program of travel is
the museum’s ethos includes the belief that outsider art is no
part of Art Design Chicago, an exploration of Chicago's art
different than any other great art, except in its reception by the
and design legacy, an initiative of the Terra Foundation for
larger art world. Past exhibits include those on outsider art
American Art with presenting partner The Richard H. Driehaus
from Japan and China as well as New Masters, a 2017-2018
Foundation.
showing of 30 portraits along with works by their subjects, contemporary artists working outside the mainstream. The Outsider Art Museum is excited to host Chicago Calling and “celebrate Chicago as fertile ground for the genre” while “illuminating the parallels and dissonances across the continents within it,” said Director Hans Looijen.
Chicago Calling: Art Against the Flow is funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art and The Richard H. Driehaus
Chicago’s passionate embracing of outsider art is often traced
Foundation. ■
to a brief, yet pivotal, talk given by Dubuffet in 1951 at the Arts Club of Chicago, so there is symmetry to a traveling show by
— JOSHUA WILLIS
THE OUTSIDER 31
BOOK REVIEWS Eugene Von Bruenchenhein:
particular talent or skill set for the technical underpinnings of
Mythologies, by Karen Patterson.
observational painting.” So how did an apparent Sunday painter
John Michael Kohler Arts Center,
of modest talent become the Eugene Von Bruenchenhein we
Sheboygan, 248 pages, 265
now know?
color images, 2017. ISBN: 9780998681702. Hardcover, $65
The answer might be in his 1954 work The Danger We Face. It is the first one laced with the mushroom clouds that came to
Not everyone loves Eugene Von
populate his other paintings starting that year—two years after
Bruenchenhein’s art, and among those who do, not always
the original hydrogen bomb test—all painted in his now-familiar
equally. Some favor the paintings. Some like the photos of his
brightly expressionist visionary style.
wife but not the paintings so much. Others prefer the sculpture, maybe the chicken bones better, or perhaps the ceramics.
It’s a “trove of paintings that picture the awe of humankind’s geophysical experimentations,” she writes, adding, “along
When I discovered Von Bruenchenhein’s art, I thought the bone
with the rest of the First World population, he struggled to
towers were an interesting sideline, the photos and ceramics
understand the destructive forces of thermonuclear weaponry
charming, but the paintings the core achievement. Now, thirty
(and the normalizing of doomsday scenarios in everyday life).”
years and a 2017 John Michael Kohler Arts Center exhibit and catalog later, it seems clear that the paintings were just part of
It is indeed hard to overstate the combined awe, horror and fear
the story—the part for which Eugene himself may have most
that nuclear weapons inspired in most of the population
desperately wanted recognition, but neither the core of his
all through the Cold War. (And one could argue that Von
creative achievement nor of his self-created world.
Bruenchenhein’s paintings remain relevant because that awe, horror and fear ought to be just as pertinent today, since the
Mythologies, the name of the exhibit and its substantial catalog,
weapons that inspired them never went away.)
makes a holistic case for the artist. When you see the breadth of objects he made, supplemented with extracts from his writings,
It was not only the big questions that concerned him. Brett
the paintings come to seem like just one facet of his unimaginably
Littman's essay explores the botanical influences on the artist
intense drive to create. Or to put it another way, the heart of the
and his imagery, an influence represented at the Kohler not
art is not in any of the individual forms he fashioned, but in that
just in the ceramics and other artworks, but also in two actual
drive and the ideas that energized it.
greenhouses, representing Von Bruenchenhein’s fascination with succulents.
As Lisa Stone writes in her catalog essay, “Von Bruenchenhein was deeply curious about the order, structure, and nature of
He also came down to earth in his architectural interests. As
the world and the universe beyond, and perhaps the spaces in
Stone explores, later in his painting career he backed off from
between.” He seemed to use every means available to him to
the architecture of the universe to the architecture of buildings
express and fulfill that curiosity, his modest education and even
and cities, though still rendering them in his visionary style.
more modest wealth be damned. Stone quotes his writing on the back of one architectural Although Michelle Grabner, in her essay, sets herself the task
painting: “Built of non-corrosive permanent / Color stone. / Color
of “appraising his singular vision within the discourse of
all thru the stone, non erosive / A New formula.” Like so much
contemporary painting,” she is most helpful in connecting it to
else, he took architecture seriously. And in contrast to the
his contemporary world, especially the rise of the nuclear threat.
despair that lies beneath the surface of his H-Bomb paintings,
She observes that prior to 1954 he seemed mostly to concern
the architecture seems to represent a visualization of hope.
himself artistically with “traditional genre studies [that] reveal no
“The tower paintings reflect a desire for architecture to fulfill
32 THE OUTSIDER
critical human needs and longing: for shelter and freedom, for
She wants to feel a connection with Marie, and she wants to
ethical values, for living space and dream space,” writes Stone,
know how Marie as her own person (rather than just muse
who also points out visual parallels between the skyscraper
to Eugene) fits into the story of Von Bruenchenhein’s art. Yet
paintings and his chicken-bone towers.
as she acknowledges in a footnote, “including Marie in her husband’s legacy is less about reversing the facts than about
Stone’s essay brings nuance to this late group of architectural
reading between the lines and between the lives.”
images which, like many of Von Bruenchenhein’s paintings, can tend to run together visually in the absence of close reading
When you look at those photos, it’s hard not to ask whether she
for distinctions. Looked at carefully, though, there is much to
was simply her husband’s subject/object, or somehow a
ponder.
co-creator. It’s known that she hand tinted some of the photos herself, and some of them hung in her house, but was she
And what are you likely to find if you ponder deeply? Is his
involved in choreographing what had to be carefully planned
genius purely in the aesthetic wonder of his creations, or did he
sessions, or was she just raw material for Eugene’s art?
have something meaningful to say as he attempted to conquest the geometry of time and space? It’s a similar conundrum with
His writings, Paterson points out, display an “all-consuming,
many artistic visionaries – how seriously to take the content.
grandiose sense of self.” She wonders if there was room for Marie inside his genius, not just in his images.
Perhaps he was just the genius to sort out the nature of the universe. The exhibit demonstrates that this man’s brilliance
There is indeed a claustrophobic feeling in much of Von
went beyond the surface appearance of his art. The many
Bruenchenhein’s world, not just for Marie but for at least some
writing samples – poetry, letters and more – not only provide
of his viewers as well. There’s a prickliness to his work that
context but also give a more direct sense of how he thought
also can cause discomfort. It is perhaps no coincidence that
about himself, his wife and what he was doing.
this artist who loved cacti filled his paintings and drawings with piercing angles and spikey endpoints. The bone sculptures
His writings (and other ephemera on display) also provide a
have their own spiny shapes, and even some of the Marie
window into something darker, the tragedy, really, that this was
photos feature pointy-tipped crowns.
a man of immense energy and talent that the world didn’t care about. His efforts to gain exposure for his art came to naught.
So if not a comfortable or comforting genius, Mythologies does
It was, classically, after he died in 1983 that the art world began
effectively make the case that he was a genius nonetheless,
to recognize something special was going on in that small
love his art or otherwise. ■
house on the west side of Milwaukee. It is of no small importance that he shared that house with
Outliers and American Vanguard
his wife, Marie, featured in the hundreds of photos that some
Art, by Lynne Cooke. University
consider the most appealing of Von Bruenchenhein’s work
of Chicago Press, Chicago,
across the various media.
412 pages, 450 color plates, 2018. ISBN: 978-0226522272. Hardcover, $65
But as in so much of his art, there is something not entirely comfortable in the Marie images. It’s to curator Karen Patterson’s credit that she uses prime territory in the catalog
Outliers and American Vanguard Art, filling several rooms at the
to take them on.
National Gallery of Art, is a dauntingly large-scale show. And at five pounds, 412 pages, 450-plus illustrations and a 10x12
She departs from the traditional art catalog academic essay
form factor, its catalog is even more daunting. But despite some
format, casting her thoughts in the form of a letter to Marie. That
excess imbrications and fixed subject positions, the art and the
helps her raise some tough questions, questions made tougher
important points being made are plenty sufficient to interest
because they can’t really be answered.
non-academic readers. THE OUTSIDER 33
Curator Lynne Cooke’s core premise is that the story of
symphony orchestras, the art world finds itself having to reach
modernism is woefully incomplete absent the art of the self-taught.
out in order to hang on.
Her exhibit places the work of trained and untrained artists side by side to tell a pointedly joint story—and because the pieces of
Cooke, a senior curator at the very establishment National
art have something to say to each other. An obvious example:
Gallery of Art in Washington, devotes a good deal of her catalog
The role-playing and identity-interrogating photographs of
essay to an early case study in reaching out, which became
Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, Cindy Sherman and Lee Godie.
a tragically missed opportunity. It still seems remarkable that Alfred Barr, the first director of New York’s Museum of Modern
A commitment to equal footing resonates throughout the catalog
Art, was so passionate an advocate for self-taught art that it
and in the exhibit. Aesthetic equality doesn’t mean all is equal,
arguably lost him that job. Also arguably, Barr’s 1943 demotion
however. “Art is defined not by innate characteristics but
put the kibosh for several decades on institutional interest in folk
by the determinations of socially empowered agents, institutions,
and self-taught art—and the creative prospects of bridging elite
and discourses that evaluate, legitimate, and promote it,” Cooke
and popular expression.
points out. Instead, an essentially parallel art world eventually developed While the Outliers project takes delight in the art for its own
that revolved more or less exclusively around self-taught
sake, its thematic focus is the way those empowered agents and
creators, generating its own audience (and thus a market) for
the outlier artists have related over the decades. It examines
their work. With exhibitions like Outliers increasingly embracing
not just the often-fraught power relations involved, but also
creative equality between trained and untrained, however,
how moments of positive institutional reception have brought
this parallel world shows signs of dissolving back into the
attention and legitimation to valuable but undervalued creative
mainstream. While there is potentially both prestige and a bigger
and cultural effort.
financial upside for artists (or their descendants) and collectors, the benefits probably will flow to a smaller, more elite group than
“The advocacy of credentialed artists for the work of their
welcomed in that parallel world.
unschooled peers … together with ground-breaking exhibitions in institutions of modern art that identified, classified, and
Accepting the vanguard’s embrace also means living with its
validated such work, have played a determining role in shaping
forms of discourse, something not all lovers of self-taught art
the narratives of American art history,” she writes.
will appreciate. Nor is everyone in the broader art world ready to embrace this particular Other, despite incursions like Outliers.
The inner workings of the art world and its vanguard are not
Barr’s opponents have their heirs.
necessarily points of great interest to those for whom the point of outsider art is to be free of all that (per Jean Dubuffet’s
What to call this stuff also remains a nagging issue, and the
original art brut concept). It’s not just the artistes brut who stand
Outliers catalog includes the obligatory treatment of terminology.
outside the art world and its discourse, after all, but also many
While that’s often the deadliest section of books concerned with
of the people who appreciate and collect their work—and for
this hard-to-name art, the chapter devoted to “Black Folk Art
that matter most people period.
Redux” actually manages to debate labels in ways that
Vanguard discourse and the self-referential art it esteems can
the overall project, it’s generous in spirit and relatively free of
be valuable and interesting on their own terms, but they are
politics. The roundtable discussion is less about condemning
increasingly unimportant to the broader culture. (Dubuffet’s
or advocating particular terms than about unpacking what the
jeremiads against Cultural art don’t signify so much when it’s
labels mean and, importantly, have meant. Labels unloved
no longer such a potent threat to creativity.) That diminished
today may have made sense in a certain time and place.
standing is also, perhaps, why the art of the self-taught is once
Understanding what was intended rather than simply criticizing
again penetrating mainstream bastions. Much like, say,
the people who used them 10 or 50 or 100 years ago might
enlighten rather than enervate. That’s mostly because, like
help us better understand both the art so labeled and its treatment over the years. 34 THE OUTSIDER
Cooke herself seems a little diffident about introducing a new
lessons for the packaging that happened in the last part
label like “outlier.” More than labels, however, she is concerned
of the century and that continues to happen today, for better
with how art world institutions and their reception of work from
and worse.
self-taught creators reflect the choices and biases of the people within them. She also wants to understand the influence of other
Even with the worse factored in—and Marshall shows how
“empowered agents,” especially the professional artists who
“discovery” can turn on “raced, classed and gendered
have been key advocates for the self-taught in every major wave
hierarchies”—discovery is essential. By definition, art created
of enthusiasm for this work, “embracing autodidacts without
by people who do not see themselves as artists will
distinction, simply as fellow artists.”
disproportionately never become known if not found. So even if the narratives can be problematic, the discoveries can be quite
A not-always comfortable but overriding point is that while
productive for both the artists and our broader cultural heritage.
many lovers of self-taught and outsider art take pride in the independence of their preferences, taste doesn’t just happen,
Outliers is itself another moment in the century-long discovery
even for the most vanguard of us. It’s very much subject to the
narrative of self-taught art. That’s not without risk. Exhibits that
influence of cultural biases and institutional forces. On the
hang outsider and insider work together have been criticized
negative side that includes burdening non-mainstream artists
as patronizing the former, valuing it largely for its influence on
with the obligations of “authenticity,” not to mention outright
the latter. But while Outliers does indeed point out episodes of
exploitation. On the positive side, projects like the Depression-era
influence, that’s not its main point.
Index of American Design spread awareness of American folk art, while decades later the Corcoran Gallery’s original Black
Cooke’s goal clearly is to allow the self taught full partnership in
Folk Art In America show helped generate interest in the art of
the making of modern art. That’s not so admirable to those
self-taught African Americans.
who find the modernist narrative distasteful. But why not give the untrained their due? Whether or not you like this train of
University of California-Santa Barbara art historian Jenni
thought, the Outliers argument is coherent, and a lot better than
Sorkin explores how places like the Whitney Museum took the
enforced segregation, no matter who is doing the enforcing or
once-radical step of taking women’s creativity seriously. She
for what noble reasons.
could have simply complained about how museum quilt exhibits assimilate women’s creative work into hegemonic modernist
Nor is that full partnership mere lip service. One of Cooke’s most
discourse, but instead makes a number of interesting points,
important arguments is that the marginal position of those
among others that quilts may not be as homespun as they
marginal to the art world is not an obstacle to artistic importance.
seem. Their makers, she says, deserve more credit for aesthetic
“Their position at a remove is often a preferred location, a place
sophistication than typically allowed to work deemed quaint.
of strength,” the exhibition brochure says. Standing outside can
The point is to free these artists from those chains of authenticity,
enable the envisioning of work in ways that would never emerge
something the “Black Folk Art” panelists also discuss.
from within the mainstream. In other words, Cooke is taking the kind of radical step that derailed Alfred Barr: Self-taught artists
Jennifer Jane Marshall, an art history professor at the University
might sometimes produce artistically superior work exactly
of Minnesota, takes on discovery narratives, which play an
because they are self taught.
outsized role in the broader narrative of self-taught art. “I examine the discovery narrative of these artists not for the facts
The Outliers exhibition, which closed May 13 at the National
they relay, which are often apocryphal, but for the values they
Gallery of Art, is scheduled to run June 24 to Sept. 30 at the
encode,” she writes. (The apocryphal facts often include those
High Museum in Atlanta and Nov. 18 to March 18 at the
supplied by the artists themselves.) Her focus on narratives from
Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
the first half of the 20th century, including “the packaging of black artists by the white art world” in the interwar years, has
— WILLIAM SWISLOW
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IMAGES IN OUR WORLD TODAY
Where to next? Chicago Calling: Art Against the Flow Travel Schedule Organized and traveled by Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago Calling: Art Against the Flow premiered at Intuit June 29, 2018 and was extended by popular demand to February 10, 2019, in Chicago. La Halle Saint Pierre Paris, March 23 - August 2, 2019 Prinzhorn Collection Heidelberg, September 2019–January 2020
Museum of Contemporary Photography Columbia College Chicago 600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, Illinois 60605 Visit mocp.org to plan your visit
FREE and open to the public
Collection de l’Art Brut Lausanne, March 6– August 30, 2020 Outsider Art Museum Amsterdam, September 2020-March 2021
Monday through Saturday 10am–5pm Thursday 10am–8pm; Sunday 12–5pm Chicago Calling: Art Against the Flow is part of Art Design Chicago, an exploration of Chicago’s art and design legacy, an initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art with presenting partner The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. Intuit has received funding from the Terra Foundation for American Art to support the exhibition, catalogue and international travel.
36 THE OUTSIDER
Board EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
VIVIAN SOCIETY
Jan Petry – President
Carl Hammer
Tracy Holmes – Vice President
Eugenie Johnson
Phyllis Rabineau – Secretary
Ann Nathan
Patrick Blackburn – Treasurer, Finance Committee
Bob Roth
Judy Saslow
and Co-Chair, Finance Committee
Steve Lombardo – Co-Chair, Finance Committee
Lisa Stone
Matt Arient – Chair, Exhibitions Committee Kevin Cole – Chair, Collections and Acquisitions Committee
STRATEGIC ADVISORY COUNCIL
Jerry Stefl – Co-Chair, Education Committee
Michelle Boone
Rob Lentz – Co-Chair, Education Committee
Russell Bowman
Scott Lang – Chair, Development Committee
Janet Duchossois
Tim Bruce – Chair, Marketing and Communications Committee
John Jerit
Cleo Wilson – Past President
Victor Keen John Maizels
MEMBERS
Frank Maresca
Charlie Baum
Ashley Smither Langley
Rich Bowen
Leslie Umberger
Ralph Concepcion
Scott Lang, Chair
Susann Craig
Debra Kerr, Liaison
Cheri Eisenberg Harriet Finkelstein Marjorie Freed
Staff
Rob Grossett Bonnie McGqrath Elizabeth Nelson Benedicta Badia Nordenstahl Twisha Shah-Brandenburg Bill Swislow David Syrek David Walega Michelle Woods
Alison Amick, Senior Manager of Exhibitions and Development, Chief Curator Julie Blake, Special Projects Coordinator Jane Castro, School and Youth Programs Coordinator Christophe Delaunay, Gallery Associate Claire Fassnacht, Development Coordinator Sierra Jackson, Guest Service Associate Debra Kerr, Executive Director Melissa Smith, Senior Manager of Learning and Engagement Christina Stavros, Assistant Registrar Eva Stefanski, Archivist Annaleigh Wetzel, Marketing Coordinator
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Founded in 1991, Intuit is one of the premier museums in the world of outsider and self-taught art. Intuit offers world-class exhibitions; resources for scholars and students; a collection of 1,200 works of art; the Henry Darger Room Collection, a permanent exhibition; the Robert A Roth Study Center, a non-circulating collection with a focus in the fields of outsider and contemporary self-taught art; and educational programming for people of all interest levels and backgrounds.
ISBN 9780999001035
90000 >
756 N. Milwaukee Ave. Chicago, Illinois 60642 312.243.9088 www.art.org
38 THE OUTSIDER 9 780999 001035