definition and brief history: outsider art

The term Outsider Art has different meanings to different people; there are however some key points, which the majority can agree upon. Historically, the first known definition was written by the French artist Jean Dubuffet in 1949 and his description still holds true in many respects today. At the time he used the term 'Art Brut' (which translated from the French means 'Raw Art') to describe what was so distinctive about his own collection of art works. Raw because it was uncooked by culture and independent of conventional artistic tradition, fashion or trends.Dubuffet spent 30 years collecting works from 'Art Brut' artists and in 1972 this collection found a permanent home in the Collection De L'Art Brut in Lausanne. The curator of this museum, Michel Thevoz, has written:
"Art Brut", or "Outsider Art", consists of works produced by people who for various reasons have not been culturally indoctrinated or socially conditioned. They are all kinds of dwellers on the fringes of society. Working outside fine art "system" (schools, galleries, museums and so on), these people have produced, from the depths of their own personalities and for themselves and no one else, works of outstanding originality in concept, subject and techniques. They are works, which owe nothing to tradition or fashion."
The term Outsider Art was coined from the title of the book by Roger Cardinall published in 1972 and was meant to be an English translation for 'Art Brut', but other words that have been used in connection to what can be called Outsider Art are Raw, Brut, Naïve, Compulsive, Independent, Visionary, Spiritual, Folk, Self-taught, Marginalised, Intuitive. There is still an ongoing debate about the terminology of these words, but for us at The Other Side Gallery we use the term Outsider Art to incorporate the work created by artists from socially excluded groups and by social exclusion we mean people with mental health problems, physical or sensory disabilities, learning difficulties and others disadvantaged or excluded from society such as homeless, refugees, substance misusers etc.