Outsider Artists create their art independent of the established art world. The artists include prisoners, patients in mental health facilities, people in poor, devastated communities, and graffiti & street artists. As stated by Turhan Demirel, outsider art “is an expression of hidden desires, inner contradictions and visions,” a seemingly appropriate venue for social change. This article focusses on Outsider Art for Social Change.
Stairway to change/freedom/creativity etc., represents Arts for Social Change (free clipart).
The site http://artforsocialchangegf.weebly.com/environmental-art.html gives an overview or arts for social change. It states its intention as follows:
THIS WEBSITE IS INTENDED FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, PREFERABLY FINE ART STUDENTS WHO ARE LOOKING TO BE INSPIRED BY ARTISANS WHO LIVE FOR CHANGE AND WHO ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIFE OF OTHERS BY THE USE OF ART. THIS SITE IS MADE UP OF A MIX OF ARTISANS WHO ARE CREATING THOUGHT PROVOKING AND INTERESTING WORK FOR A POSITIVE MESSAGE. HOPEFULLY THIS INFORMATION WILL INSPIRE STUDENTS TO THINK ABOUT THEIR OWN BODY OF WORK AND HOW THEY TOO CAN CREATE WORK THAT IS MEANINGFUL AND INSPIRATIONAL TO OTHERS. AS A FUTURE HIGH SCHOOL ART TEACHER I WANT MY ART STUDENTS TO CREATE MORE THEN JUST PRETTY THINGS BUT TO UNDERSTAND HOW ART CAN BE USED AS A POWERFUL TOOL TO CHANGE THE WAY OTHERS AND THEY SEE THE WORLD. [1]
History
Turhan Demirel in http://www.outsider-artworld.com/ gives a concise history of Outsider Art:
The Term Outsider art was introduced in 1972 by the English art historian Roger Cardinal as an Anglo-Saxon equivalent for the term Art brut, which established by French painter Jean Dubuffet. Outsider art is neither an art style nor a school. It is therefore anything but a homogenous, self-contained unit. Its essential, character is that it takes place outside the established art world, beyond art history and tradition and regardless of trends and fashions of the art.
The creators of this art are mainly people, who made unusual experience in their lives or those who are subject to extreme mental states: Psychiatry-experienced, mentally handicapped people, prison inmates, border crossers, eccentrics, people on the margins of society, in the social offside, in voluntary or unintended isolation and self-taught people with artistic potential. They differ regarding their personal background and social origin far apart, use different materials and expressive means, have no stylistic common ground and usually don`t know from each other. Which connects them and distinguishes them are the authenticity, originalness and immediacy of their pictorial language. Unlike the professional artists, they work with some exceptions, without ever a real artistic training to have enjoyed away from the commercial art business and free from any pressure to adapt and independently of changing modes of art. Most of them see their own work not as an artwork and think of themselves not an artist. They have no intention to be artist, they live art. Their art is an expression of hidden desires, inner contradictions and visions. It is not outward but inward oriented a trip into inside. The major aspect of their work is that, it emerges in their inner world and imagination. The purpose of the work is in its own creation.
The works of outsiders have a unique visual language, a unique independent aesthetic category and evidence of a high potential for expression asset and a rough, raw charisma: Directness of expression, forcefulness, immediacy and authenticity, which make their strength, their charm and fascination ever identified. Their genuine, raw pictorial language stresses the conventional viewpoint in particular, in such a way, that in the eyes of some viewers, it is not only astonishing and admirable, but also strangely and grotesque.
Despite acknowledgment, which is brought to the outsider art increasingly in the last three decades and apart from few exceptions, which held the introduction into the art enterprise, into the museums and attained even world fame, the art of outsiders is however not accordingly appreciated by the established art world. It is to be wished that the creators of these amazing artworks are recognized as artists. [2]
Turhan Demirel
Wuppertal, Germany
For more information on the outsider arts for social change, see
Prisoner Art
Art by Patients with Mental Illness
Environmental Art
Mural Art
Graffiti Art
The site http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/08/23/outsider.art/index.html gives examples of outsider art by those with schizophrenia or Down's syndrome, as well as works of art created by prison inmates or those in captivity.