The shrines, sculptures, and environments herein defy tidy explanations. They are labors of love, offspring of obsession, materializations of passion. These works, often categorized as "Art Brut" or "Outsider Art," were created by self-taught men and women working on their own and without connections to the art world: in most cases they did not consider themselves "artists" or their work "art."
Pictures of really cool Outsider Art mostly sculptures, yard displays, decorated interiors, and houses. A lot of the photos are a bit blurry and have a weird early-Instagram style filter on them... so it's hard to recommend this volume to anyone.
The introduction mentions how much of this type of art is destroyed but municipality by-laws or embarrassed family members after the artist's death.
I think my mom will love this book, so I'm going to give my copy to her. She's always doing weird art projects that have embarrassed me the past! Now that I'm more enlightened, I love the stuff she does but I am thankful she hasn't converted her whole house and yard into an art piece.
This book is concerned with one of my favorite topics (outsider art) and I am predisposed to appreciate a collection of images spanning the majority of Earth's continents. The format is similar to a handbook--small in size with a durable cover that would allow the book to travel well. The overview states "We are fortunate that these magnificent structures have been preserved," and we are. But a part of me wants to know: Why these structures and not others? A bit more information about the structures and artists would help the reader to appreciate these images even more....