New book sees ‘outsider artists’ as part of a creative spectrum rather than a world apart
about 3 months ago (02/06/2024)
New book sees ‘outsider artists’ as part of a creative spectrum rather than a world apart Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Books review New book sees ‘outsider artists’ as part of a creative spectrum rather than a world apart The publication also explores how artists on the periphery might interact with the art market Claudia Barbieri Childs 6 February 2024 Share Portuguese-born, UK-based artist Manuel Bonifacio’s Motorbike and Man (2012) Courtesy the Outside In Collection The book Outside In: Exploring the margins of art presents works by a group of mostly contemporary “outsider” artists and argues a case for critiquing them on merit—and the outsider art category in general—within the mainstream of the art canon. Marc Steene, who trained as an artist at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and was for several years the executive director of Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, is the vice-president of the European Outsider Art Association and founder of Outside In, a charity for artists disadvantaged by mental, physical or social disability. The nub of Steene’s argument is that their work, viewed through the prism of their condition, is unjustly dismissed as a therapy by-product, discounting its artistic creativity and creating barriers to fair market valuation and access.