Outsider Art - Turning the Art World Inside Out

Looking back on this project, I can see it really closely links to the Outsider Art Documentary showed to us earlier in the community project. The term outsider art was created by the art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an english synonym for art brut, which was created by French Artist Jean Dubuffet. The word was used to describe art created 'outside the boundaries of official culture'. Dubuffet focused on art made by those on the outside of the established art scene such as children and patients of psychiatric hospitals. However, the english term 'outsider art' is often applied to include self taught or naive art makers who were never institutionalised, so those who have little to no contact with the mainstream art world.

I really enjoyed the documentary as it really opened my eyes to appreciating art a lot more. I do feel that the documentary was a little biased a i feel it was appreciating people who haven't attended art school a bit more but that's fine as it was showcasing the talents of those who haven't been institutionalised which is great. I really liked how they went to asylums and found people with disabilities or psychological problems and appreciated the art they created as they are shunned from the society and it was nice to seem them presented in a positive light.

I feel this closely links to my community group, Reigate School as they are children with learning disabilities and my aim was to break the boundaries of drawing by creating art in different ways still linking to drawing.  After the success of the workshop, some of the children really did produce some really nice work and I guess it would be viewed as outsider art as they are children that suffer from learning disabilities. I feel that it really did link closely and I'm happy i was given the chance to watch that documentary as I feel it prepared me for my community group.

Examples of Outsider Art