Overview

'Outsider art' is work produced outside the mainstream of modern art by self-taught visionaries, spiritualists, eccentrics, recluses, psychiatric patients, criminals, and others beyond the perceived margins of society. Coined in 1972 the term is derived from 'art brut', which the artist Jean Dubuffet began promoting just after the Second World War. Both focus on the idea of a 'raw', untaught creativity, which is still a contentious and much-debated issue. Is this a natural phenomenon, requiring only the right circumstances (isolation or alienation) to be revealed; or is it more like a mirage projected by the very culture it is supposed to be escaping from?

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9781861895219

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The author guides the reader through this complex debate, building up the historical background and investigating the growth of psychological ideas and psychiatric therapies during the 20th century. His analysis includes an introduction to the principles of art brut as defined by Dubuffet, the evolution of public appreciation, the role of collectors, and the impact of these developments on the artists themselves. * <i>The Art Newspaper</i> * a thoughtful, informative and well-researched analysis of an area of art that defies easy classification or study . . . he shows that in the struggle for understanding of this complex and contradictory genre there is much to learn about art from the outside edge, and through it, understanding of the art that resides in the mainstream centre. * <i>The Art Book</i> *

To celebrate publication of Outsider Art, James Maclagan will be in discussion with James Brett, the curator of the Museum of Everything, at the ICA on 10th February 2010, with Jarvis Cocker as fellow panelist.

Author Information

David Maclagan is a retired university lecturer and art therapist. based in Yorkshire. He has published numerous articles on Outsider art, art therapy and image-based psychology, and is the author of Creation Myths: Man's Introduction to the World (1977), and Psychological Aesthetics: Painting, Feeling and Making Sense (2001) and Outsider Art (Reaktion, 2009).

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