Parallel Visions: Modern Artists and Outsider Art

by Maurice Tuchman, Carol S. Eliel

In 1912 Paul Klee declared that the art of the mentally ill, as well as the art of children, "really should be taken far more seriously than are the collections of all our art museums if we truly intend to reform today's art." What Klee found most fascinating and instructive about the art of "outsiders"--those self-taught individuals, sometimes mentally disturbed, who create while isolated from mainstream culture--was the sincerity, depth, and power of their un-adulterated, unmediated expressions. Parallel Visions, an exhibition and catalogue organized and produced by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, reveals the considerable influence that outsider art has had on the development of twentieth-century art. The work of such "marginalized" artists and compulsive visionaries as Antonin Artaud, Ferdinand Cheval, Henry Darger, Howard Finster, Madge Gill, Martin Ram!rez, P. M. Wentworth, Adolf Wlfli, and Joseph Yoakum is juxtaposed with the work of devotees of outsider art among modern artists. Essays by the curators of the exhibition, Maurice Tuchman and Carol S. Eliel, and by other commentators offer a history of this phenomenon as well as an exploration of issues crucial to the formation of our aesthetic and critical judgments and our notions of creativity. In addition to the curators, the contributors include Russell Bowman, Roger Cardinal, Barbara Freeman, Sander L. Gilman, Mark Gisbourne, Reinhold Heller, John M. MacGregor, Donald Preziosi, Allen Weiss, Jonathan Williams, and Sarah Wilson.

Genres: Art, Art History

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good, comprehensive overview on the influence of "outsider art" (still don't like that term) on modern art and artists. It's broken up into essays so it isn't completely brain-numbing like alot of other essays about art can be, IMHO. But, the most interesting part of the book is the first 30 pages where the author profiles the life and art of various "ousider" artists.

[kit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful collection of images. The only place I know of to see much of this in print.

[Phyllis]

1992