General & Miscellaneous Art, Art Styles & Periods, Anthropology, Sociology

Raw Creation: Outsider Art & Beyond

Name: Raw Creation: Outsider Art & Beyond
Author: John Maizels
ISBN: 9780714840093

by John Maizels

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Overview

The art of visionaries, folk creators, spiritualists, recluses, the 'mad' and the socially marginalized is no longer scorned and cannot be ignored. Among the first to value and collect such work was the French artist Jean Dubuffet (1901-85). For those he judged to represent the 'purest form of creation' he coined the term Art Brut, literally 'raw art' - raw because it was 'uncooked' by culture, raw because it came directly from the psyche, art touched by a raw nerve. In Raw Creation John Maizels traces the history of the recognition and study of this art and examines the different theories and definitions that have grown up around it. He provides detailed expositions of the work of individual artists ranging from such Art Brut masters as Adolf Wolfli and Aloise Corbaz to such gifted American folk artists as Bill Traylor and Mose Tolliver. Devoting several chapters to large-scale visionary environments, he takes a broad international view embracing Rodia's towers in Watts, Los Angeles, the Palais Ideal in the south of France, and Nek Chand's sculpture garden in north India.

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Editorials

Library Journal

Maizels, editor of Raw Vision, the international magazine on outsider and self-taught art, details the history of this art and its still developing recognition. He also discusses the theories and definitions that have grown up around the works of visionaries, the insane, and other extraordinary artists. He further examines art expressed in mediums outside of the conventional art world and devotes a final section to large-scale visionary environments throughout the world. This work complements other recently published titles on outsider art (Pictured in My Mind, LJ 5/15/96; Contemporary American Folk Art, LJ 8/15/96) as it presents the discoveries and influential theories on this contemporary art with a broad international view. For specialized collections and larger contemporary collections.Judith Yankeilun Lind, Roseland Free P.L., N.J.