In the 1940s, the French artist Jean Dubuffet began collecting “works produced by artists unscathed by artistic culture,” as he put it in a 1949 text describing his term, art brut (“unrefined art”). These artists—psychiatric patients, psychics, and untrained social recluses—work “from their own depths,” Dubuffet wrote, “and not from the conventions of classical or fashionable art.” Today, such creations are known as outsider art, expressions of subcultural, rural, or folk traditions that offer an alternative to establishment art. The 8th edition of the Outsider Art Fair Paris features hundreds of works, spanning the early 20th century to today, and while the pieces on view are united in their rejection of the artistic elite, it is this same quality of unbridled creativity that makes the show radically diverse in its offerings. The Fair includes both digital and in-person components. —C.J.F.
The Arts Intel Report
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
Outsider Art Fair
When
Oct 21–30, 2020
Where
Etc
Susan Te Kahurangi King, Untitled, c. 1964–1965. Courtesy of Robert Heald Gallery.