Understanding Outsider Art

Outsider art is art made by people working outside the art world: self-taught makers who never went to art school, never planned to exhibit and often never called themselves artists. The idea began in France in 1945, when the painter Jean Dubuffet coined the term art brut, or "raw art". It reached English in 1972, when the British critic Roger Cardinal translated it as "outsider art".

This topic explains the ideas, the people who shaped them and the arguments that still surround them. Start with the first guide if you are new to the subject.

What this topic covers

• The basics: what outsider art is, and how it differs from art brut, folk art, naïve art and visionary art.
• The founders: Jean Dubuffet's collection, Roger Cardinal's 1972 book and the Hayward Gallery's landmark 1979 exhibition.
• The asylum collections: the psychiatrists in Bern, Heidelberg and Surrey whose patients' work came first.
• Spirit-guided art: mediums such as Madge Gill and Augustin Lesage, who said their hands were guided by spirits.
• Today: supported studios, the labels debate, and the ethics of a growing market.

Short on time? Read the key facts or the timeline, then meet the artists themselves.