History of SELF-TAUGHT
&
OUTSIDER ART
Katherine M. Murrell, "Art Brut: Origins and Interpretations," Singular Visions: Images of Art Brut from the Anthony Petullo Collection exhibition essay (2005)
Sixty years ago, Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) wrote in a letter to his friend, the painter René Auberjonois:
"I preferred ‘Art Brut’ instead of ‘Art Obscur’ [Obscure Art], because professional art does not seem to me any more visionary or lucid; rather the contrary....Why then do you write that gold in its raw state is more fake than imitation gold? I like it better as a nugget than as a watchcase. Long live fresh-drawn, warm, raw buffalo milk."(1)
This is the first recorded use of the term Art Brut, often translated as "raw art." With this, a field of study was born. However, the parameters that defined exactly what this meant had yet to be determined, and there is still much debate about what does and does not constitute Art Brut, or the later term, Outsider Art.
As Dubuffet described it, this was art that was not based on established traditions or techniques. It did not follow styles or trends, and it was not made primarily to be sold for monetary gain. It is spontaneous, uninhibited, and maybe not even made as "art." The appeal of this work, for Dubuffet and others before him, was the unselfconscious imagery born of pure, uninhibited expression. This art subverted the conscious efforts of the artist and dismissed premeditated ideas of what art should be and what it should represent.
"I preferred ‘Art Brut’ instead of ‘Art Obscur’ [Obscure Art], because professional art does not seem to me any more visionary or lucid; rather the contrary....Why then do you write that gold in its raw state is more fake than imitation gold? I like it better as a nugget than as a watchcase. Long live fresh-drawn, warm, raw buffalo milk."(1)
This is the first recorded use of the term Art Brut, often translated as "raw art." With this, a field of study was born. However, the parameters that defined exactly what this meant had yet to be determined, and there is still much debate about what does and does not constitute Art Brut, or the later term, Outsider Art.
As Dubuffet described it, this was art that was not based on established traditions or techniques. It did not follow styles or trends, and it was not made primarily to be sold for monetary gain. It is spontaneous, uninhibited, and maybe not even made as "art." The appeal of this work, for Dubuffet and others before him, was the unselfconscious imagery born of pure, uninhibited expression. This art subverted the conscious efforts of the artist and dismissed premeditated ideas of what art should be and what it should represent.
