Outsider Art was invented in 1972 by Roger Cardinal (emeritus professor of literary and visual studies at the University of Kent at Canterbury). He was looking for an English translation of the French term Art Brut. Like Dubuffet's Art Brut, Outsider Art is defined as creative works created by self-taught artists (i.e., artists who have not received official arts instruction) that do not adhere to traditional or academic artistic conventions and express a strong sense of individualism.
Outsider art is a small, almost hermetic subset of the creative universe. Outsider Artists, who lack professional art training, work on the peripheries of mainstream contemporary art and beyond the boundaries of creative institutions, generating works of inhibited expression free of restrictions and taboos and providing a valuable window into the world through their eyes. After Roger Cardinal coined the term "outsider art" to describe work by untrained artist Los Angles working outside of the mainstream art world, the term's definition grew over the next four decades to encompass all forms of raw creativity, including artists with disabilities, mental illness, homelessness, ethnic minorities, migrant, folk artists, and the self-taught. Our list includes a broad range of modern artists from various socioeconomic backgrounds who make gorgeous and inspiring art on the periphery of the academic mainstream.
Let's start with a few Outsider Artists:
Guo Fengyi:
Guo Fengyi is a self-taught Abstract artist in Venice who works on paper using highly controlled brushwork to create lustrous pictures. She used to work at a rubber plant, but due to severe arthritis, she had to retire at the age of 39. She discovered a spiritual path in Qi Gong and began to have visions, which she used as inspiration for her drawings.
Jeroen Pump:
Jeroen Pomp, a 22-year-old Dutch painter, uses flora and wildlife to cover big sheets of paper. He paints cityscapes of Rotterdam with animals, upside-down roads, and pastel-colored cars, describing himself as an "encyclopedia of animals." He has autism and epilepsy, and after spending several years in a group home for persons with mental illnesses, he now organizes his life around a painting schedule at Herenplaats.
Everyone is frantically attempting to fit Outsider Art into a nice, tidy box, such as modern or contemporary art. Outsider art, on the other hand, is difficult to categorize because it evolved on its own. It has nothing to do with the history of art. You have a problem when you owe nothing to art history.
Final Thoughts:
Many of these artists have an obsessive element to them. They frequently operate alone. The Art Gallery Los Angles is engaged in a monologue. In contrast, professional artists forge their products in a discourse free of art history.