The Outsider Artist editors

What is outsider art?Outsider art is art made by self-taught people working outside the art world. Here is what the term means… Art brut, outsider, folk and naïve artArt brut, outsider art, folk art, naïve art, visionary art, self-taught art: what each term means, where it… Jean Dubuffet and art brutHow a French wine merchant turned painter coined "art brut" in 1945, collected thousands of works, and… Roger Cardinal and "Outsider Art"How a British scholar's book title gave us the term "outsider art", and how a Hayward Gallery exhibition in… Art from the asylumBefore art brut there were the hospital collections. How psychiatrists in Switzerland, Germany and Britain… Mediumistic and spirit-guided artArt made by people who believed spirits guided their hands, from a Victorian medium in Bond Street to a… The labels debateWhy the term "outsider art" is argued over, what people use instead, and how to talk about the work… Supported studios todayMuch of today's outsider art is made in supported studios. How they started, how they work, and the UK… Ethics, the market and hoaxesConsent, ownership, rising prices and disputed estates: the questions that come with collecting art by people… Adolf WölfliA Swiss farm labourer who spent 35 years in a psychiatric clinic and created an illustrated universe of… Henry DargerA hospital cleaner in Chicago who secretly wrote and illustrated one of the longest works of fiction ever… Madge GillAn East London medium who made thousands of intricate ink drawings, some on rolls of calico many metres long… Scottie WilsonA Glasgow-born junk dealer who started drawing in his forties, sold his pictures for shillings, and was… Aloïse CorbazA Swiss governess who fell in love with the idea of Kaiser Wilhelm II and spent over 40 years in a… Martín RamírezA Mexican migrant worker who spent 30 years in Californian hospitals, gluing scraps of paper together to draw… Bill TraylorBorn enslaved on an Alabama plantation, Bill Traylor began drawing on a Montgomery pavement at about 85 and… Judith ScottInstitutionalised for 35 years, Judith Scott found her voice at 44 by wrapping found objects in yarn and… The Prinzhorn artistsThe ten artists Hans Prinzhorn made famous under pseudonyms in 1922, their real names, and what happened to… The Gugging artistsHow drawing tests at a psychiatric clinic near Vienna led to the House of Artists, and the Gugging artists… British outsider artistsFrom East London mediums to a Birkenhead flat transformed into a Roman temple: the British artists at the… What is a visionary environment?A home, garden or plot of land transformed into a single work of art, usually by one self-taught person over… The Palais IdéalA country postman picked up a strange stone in 1879 and spent the next 33 years building a palace from stones… Watts TowersAn Italian immigrant tile setter spent 33 years building towers nearly 30 metres high in his Los Angeles back… Nek Chand's Rock GardenA government road inspector secretly filled a forest gorge with thousands of figures made from waste. When… Ron's Place, BirkenheadBehind the door of an ordinary Victorian house in Birkenhead, Ron Gittins spent more than 30 years building… Environments in BritainFrom a flint grotto on Brighton beach to a concrete zoo in Northumberland: Britain's self-built art… Where to see it in the UKPublic collections, galleries, supported studios and environments across the UK where you can see outsider… Museums in Europe and the USThe museums worth crossing borders for, from Dubuffet's collection in Lausanne to Henry Darger's room in… Outsider art fairsThe Outsider Art Fair has run in New York since 1993 and in Paris since 2013. Its history, upcoming dates and… Collecting outsider artWhere to buy, what to ask, and how to make sure the artists benefit. A practical guide to starting a… Books and filmsThe books and documentaries worth your time, from Roger Cardinal's original 1972 book to the films that… History of UK graffitiFrom prisoners' carvings and political slogans to the hip hop crews of the 1980s and the street art boom: how… Graffiti vs street artWhat separates graffiti from street art, and what writers mean by tags, throw-ups, pieces, burners, wildstyle… Bristol graffitiHow a city of sound systems and youth clubs produced 3D, Inkie, Nick Walker and Banksy, and became the UK's… London graffitiFrom "Clapton is God" to the Chrome Angelz, the Underground, Leake Street and Shoreditch: how London built… BanksyFrom Bristol walls to Dismaland, a self-shredding painting and a statue on Pall Mall: Banksy's career… Banksy vs King RobboA 24-year-old piece under a canal bridge in Camden, a Banksy stencil, and a feud that pitted old-school… Best UK cities for street artA city-by-city guide to seeing graffiti and street art across the UK, from Bristol and Shoreditch to… Legal graffiti wallsThere are fewer legal walls in the UK than most people think. Where they are, what "tolerated" really means… Graffiti and UK lawGraffiti without permission is a crime across the UK. A plain-English guide to the laws in England and Wales… UK street art festivalsWhere to watch artists paint live: the UK's main street art festivals, when they run, and the landmark events… Belfast muralsNorthern Ireland's painted walls are among the most famous murals in the world. Where the tradition came… Graffiti and outsider artBoth are self-taught, unofficial and made outside the gallery system. What graffiti and outsider art really… Glossary of termsPlain-English definitions of the outsider art, art brut and graffiti terms you will meet on this site and…