Here’s some blistering words from art critic John McDonald that to me are more challenging and subversive than many of the tired strategies found in the mainstream art world. The quote is from his recent Sydney Morning Herald review of two recent outsider art shows near Sydney:
If one had to speculate as to why outsider art is becoming more prominent, one need only look at the upper echelons of the contemporary art world where there now exists a cosy – almost conspiratorial – relationship between the big-name artists and the marketplace. In the 1970s, conceptual artists went to extraordinary lengths to avoid making objects that could be co-opted by the art market. Nowadays the game is to make a piece of glittering kitsch or a contemptuous daub and charge the highest possible price. More often than not, some rich but shallow “investor” will buy it. Selling junk to the super-rich is considered to be not only profitable but “subversive”.
Welcome to the modern world, where all forms of greed and corporate barbarity are justified by the “dismal science” of economics. For certain artists and curators, the grotesque spectacle of such a society, in which everything is measured in monetary terms, holds a perverse fascination. This trend has created an audience of “outsiders” who look to art for a more immediate form of experience. They seek an art that is moving or challenging – that appeals to the heart rather than one’s fashion sense.
The exhibitions that John McDonald is reviewing are Creature Comforts – a survey of sculptures by Philip Hammial, at the Orange Regional Gallery; and Without Borders: Outsider Art In An Antipodean Context at the Campbelltown Arts Centre. I hope to say more on these after visiting the shows.
Outsider art seems to be in the air at present – here is a great post from Art Blog by Bob on William Hawkins, an Amercian outsider who is now gaining wide recognition. Below is an energetic elephant by Hawkins.
William Hawkins
Jumbo Elephant #3
enamel and mixed media on wood, 1989
