Raw Creation

Description

Naslagwerk geeft een breed overzicht van de Outsider Art en Art Brut stromingen. - Primitive, folk, naive, self-taught, outsider -branding art made outside of the conventional artworld has become a tender task. What defines it? Who are its creators? No matter what you call it, there'sno denying the visceral appeal of raw creativity unbound by rules, class, or education. Long-overdueattention is finally being awarded to self-taught artists - so often marginalized by race, economics, andsocial structure - allowing them to carve a solid place for themselves and their work in the world of high art. Maizel's book examines the history, study, and appreciation of this century's self-taught art, from themaniacal drawings of asylum inmates to found-object sculptures made by street people to homessurrounded by monoliths or covered in mosaic. The book bills itself as an introduction to the topic, but it isin fact quite a comprehensive study. It is divided into three sections: part one explores early studies of thework of the insane, Dubuffet and Art Brut; part two chronicles folk art and self-taught artists around the world; and partthree delves into the world of visionary environments. The contemporary busyness of the design-smalltype, footnotes printed perpendicular to text, and seemingly random increases in font size can befrustrating, but plow through - the content is informative and inspirational