Review by Booklist Review
The terms outsider art and art brut are used to describe the work of self-taught, often compulsive, visionaries. Many of these artists are mentally disturbed and all work in isolation from mainstream culture and the art world, creating drawings, paintings, and even vast architectural structures based on dreams, visions, inner dramas, and a wellspring of archetypal images. Ever since the early part of this century, surrealists and other modern artists have been fascinated and influenced by the works of their untutored, often institutionalized compatriots. This well-illustrated and carefully considered collection of essays by various curators and art historians explores the connections between the work of 40 professionals and 34 outsiders. The professional artists discussed include Paul Klee, Jean Dubuffet, Max Ernst, Alfonso Ossorio, Red Grooms, and Jim Nutt, while the group of profiled outsider artists counts Henry Darger, Howard Finster, Martin Ram{{¡}}irez, and Adolf W{{™}}olfli among its intriguing members. A probing study of the roots of the creative urge and the mystical and universal elements of visual art. (Reviewed Jan. 15, 1993)0691032130Donna Seaman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
