EVOLUTION OF A COMPLEX FIELD: A SHORT RUMINATION

Image: Henry Darger (American, 1892 – 1973). Book Two of the Cartoons, “There ought to be a law” and “They’ll do it every time,” n.d. Scrapbook, 11 × 9¼ × 1½ in (closed). Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, The Henry Darger Room Collection, gift of Kiyoko Lerner. Photo © John Faier

All works by Henry Darger © 2020 Kiyoko Lerner / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

EVOLUTION OF A COMPLEX FIELD:

A SHORT RUMINATION

by Randall Morris

This essay marks the first in a series in which Intuit marks its 30th anniversary by asking experts on outsider art how the field has changed during that time. —Lindsey Wurz, Editor

The world of our field has changed inexorably under that umbrella of the art world.

The world has changed many times between 1991 and today. The art world has changed with it. And the world of our field has changed inexorably under that umbrella of the art world. In that time, there was a sea change in the way people looked at the art made by self-taught artists in this country.

Henry Darger (American, 1892 –1973). Paintpots and paintpots with handwritten descriptions, n.d. Various dimensions. Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, The Henry Darger Room Collection, gift of Kiyoko Lerner. Photo © John Faier

Prior to the ’90s, fewer artists, both known and unknown, were represented by galleries. Many collectors went to see the artists at their homes, purchasing work from them directly in an unregulated bartering system. Tours were organized to visit artists directly, but, with some exceptions, there was very little interest from museums that did not already include the works by self-taught artists as part of their folk art holdings. This unregulated and, thus, under-documented commerce meant that, unless the collection published or became famous, a lot of important work disappeared into private holdings. Very few artists were individually represented by galleries. Many iconic catalogs were, in reality, not scholastic but, rather, vanity publications for the collections of the owners. Some even later used their own catalogs to sell the work to the public. Intuit’s exhibitions in those times were a welcome way of digging into some of those collections and making them known to the public.

Prior to the ’90s, people still held on to calling it 20th Century Folk Art. If the artist was poor or started making work late in life or was Black, etc., it was Folk Art. Calling the Corcoran show in 1980 Black Folk Art in America didn’t help. It was an essentially American field, and the first rank of dealers and collectors theorized about it in terms of (mistakenly in this writer’s opinion) it being presented as the contemporary version of traditional American folk art. There was very little interest in its relationship with European art brut, despite the visionary, intuitive understanding of the work by some dealers, collectors and visionary mainstream artists in Chicago, most notably with the work of Joseph Yoakum, Martín Ramírez and Henry Darger, who have since become icons of the field. The field began to shift, particularly as the Outsider Art Fair captured the brand and the word first used by Roger Cardinal’s publisher and the Haywood Gallery in London: OUTSIDER.

Joseph E. Yoakum (American, 1890 –1972). Mounds on Sugar plantation of Maui Valley Island shaped Hawaii Island in Hawaii National Park by Joseph E. Yoakum APR 24 1970, 1970. Black ballpoint pen, colored chalks and colored pencils on wove paper, 123/16 × 19 in. Collection of the Roger Brown Study Collection, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Included in Black Folk Art in America, 1930 –1989, and Post Black Folk Art in America, 1930 –1980 –2016.

Europe was no more interactive with the United States than we were with Europe. We didn’t have the massive body of scholarship and curatorial exploration Europe had had since the Prinzhorn Collection came into being in the early 20th century. The Hayward had, indeed, shown the work of Yoakum, Ramírez and Darger, still evincing some skepticism at allowing Ramírez and Yoakum through the carefully guarded gates with their supposedly vernacular roots. The term Outsider was used by the Europeans more at that time, until it became the hot mess it is now, with almost everything not easily categorizable in the art world thrown into the mix. The 1993 exhibit Parallel Visions also gave more cache to the rubric of Outsider, though it did present the work, less on its own art historical terms than as a sort of Primitivism, as a source of inspiration and appropriation for mainstream artists.

Fortunately, most of them are very positive. We are slowly seeing Art Brut and self-taught art as a global phenomenon without losing our American flavor. Our literature is slowly growing. More museums are opening up to filling in the missing pieces of art history.

Detail: Wesley Willis (American, 1963 –2003). Downtown City Scapes, c. 1984. Ballpoint pen and felt tip pen on board, 20 × 30 in. Collection of Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, gift of Paul T. Young and Fox Young, 2004.9

We have more curators and more knowledgeable museum directors open to the work. Artists more often now are responsibly represented by dealers. More people come into the galleries, exhibitions and art fairs now who know what they are looking at. We seem to be slowly moving past the need to pigeonhole the work with labels and are able to let the artists and the work speak for themselves. The museums and curators of Art Brut are widening the parameters of acceptance. None of this could have happened without the pioneering exhibits of Intuit, the American Folk Art Museum, the High Museum and others. Between Worlds, a recent major Bill Traylor retrospective at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, kicked the doors wide open on scholarship. This is a great time to be in this field. •

Randall Morris is an independent scholar, collector and curator. He is co-owner of Cavin-Morris Gallery in New York, open since 1980. He is currently working on curating and writing for an exhibition to be held at Halle St Pierre in Paris on the Pan-African vernacular art of the Americas.

We are slowly seeing Art Brut and self-taught art as a global phenomenon without losing our American flavor.

Installation view of The Henry Darger Room Collection at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, gift of Kiyoko Lerner. Photo © John Faier

Installation view of The Henry Darger Room Collection at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, gift of Kiyoko Lerner. Photo © John Faier