Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"Exploding accepted definitions or the "outsider" within modern Western art, The Artist Outsider presents both American and European views on outsider art, Art Brut, folk art, primitive art, women's art, ethnic art, avant-garde art, and other ardently debated art forms." "Essays by nineteen art historians, critics, folklorists, psychiatrists, cultural historians, artists, feminist scholars, anthropologists, and museum curators address the significance of ideas about the art of the "other" and the relation of these ideas to modern understandings of culture, artistic personality, and the ways that creativity helps to map our world. More than seventy illustrations, twelve in full color, illuminate these discussions." "The contributors discuss variously the work of artist outsiders as fundamental human expression, political turf, clinical data, a marker of community, a functional artifact, and a sign of personal identity. The more theoretical essays consider the problem of artistic classification; political and philosophical issues involved in the idea of the artist outsider; and critical responses to new forms of art. Other essays examine the works of French environmental artist Pierre Avezard, Mexican American schizophrenic artist Martin Ramirez, Lithuanian Canadian painter Jahan Maka, Swiss German Surrealist sculptor Meret Oppenheim, and African American woodcarver Elijah Pierce." "With its interdisciplinary vision, The Artist Outsider offers new ideas about how studies of art resonate with the examination of culture. Often in stark disagreement with one another, these essays provoke a reassessment of widely accepted ideas about the relationships among art, artistry, marginality, and culture."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Though ``Outsider Art'' has its roots in the Romantic Movement in 19th-century Europe, the term itself was coined 20 years ago to refer to works created by the insane; it has since been broadened to include the unlikely bedfellows of folk, avant-garde, primitive, and modern art. Although ostensibly covering the same topic, these two offerings have little in common. American Self-Taught , by the authors of American Primitive ( LJ 12/88), is a glossy art book presented in a popular style. Each artist--chosen, the authors unabashedly admit, because he or she has an approach that appeals to them personally--is represented by a one-page biography and several works reproduced in lavish color plates. A short introductory essay defines outsider art as ``the recovery of a lost world'' or, in other words, the harnessing of a primal, often visionary, creative impulse. The contributors to The Artist Outsider , by contrast, spend nearly 300 pages supporting, redefining, and debunking the concept. The book's 19 scholarly essays represent various academic disciplines and are grouped by aesthetic or social approach. They offer an international perspective and critically explore such diverse topics as the role of ``insiders'' (critics, curators, and dealers), the nature of folk art, the appreciation of difficult art, and art as a tool for the treatment of mental illness. While American Self-Taught is visually thrilling, The Artist Outsider offers provocative food for thought to all who deal with art history. Both are highly recommended for all large art collections; The Artist Outsider is essential for academic collections.-- Kathleen Eagen Johnson, Historic Hudson Valley, Tarrytown, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

These 19 essays investigate the production of people whose work has come to be called "outsider art." This term is used to classify those whose art does not correspond to any school or movement. They are usually self-taught and often members of marginalized groups. "Outsider art" is generally understood to be folk art, the art of the insane, art brut, woman's art, naive art, and art with certain ethnic origins. The thrust of this book is interdisciplinary, for there are essays by art critics, art historians, curators, artists, anthropologists, psychiatrists, and professors in various disciplines. The essays explore such diverse topics as the problems of artistic classification, art as the exercise of power, and the cultural and biological forces that influence the reception of new or unusual art. Half the essays are dedicated to the work of individual artists. This is a good source for artists whose works are not widely discussed or reproduced, and it is a concise, well-rounded, and thorough investigation of an area of cultural production that is receiving much attention of late. Undergraduate; graduate; general.