Sujata Prasad writes about the origin and development of Outsider art, the term coined by critic Roger Cardinal in 1972
The first annual fest of learning, promoting and sharing Outsider art in India was held at the Outsider Arts Centre at Shantiniketan. Being advertised through blog posts, tweets, emails, this unique event was conceived by filmmaker Shubhadarshini Singh, who has been running the Outsider Arts Centre for nearly two years. The centre is a magnet for artists, musicians and writers, its walls are crammed with art that traces its genesis to psychiatric hospitals, lonely attics, networks of halfway houses, therapeutic day centers and support groups.
Amongst the pioneers of this unique art form was the famous Swiss psychotic Adolf Wolfli. Born in 1864, he was put into an asylum in his 30s’. Wolfli’s oeuvre was inviolable. Condemned to a life of bleakness and emotional whiplashes Wolfli managed to explore lost spaces, invisible cities, labyrinths of architectural designs through remarkable illustrations. His art was dragged out of the asylum and given cult status by Walter Morgenthaler in a book called Madness and Art–The life and Works of Adolf Wolfli. Published in 1921, the book was a pioneering study of psychopathology and art. His work was carried forward by Prinzhorn (1886-1933), an art historian and medical doctor who started collecting art work of psychiatric patients at the Psychiatric University Hospital in Heidelberg.
In 1972, at the twilight of the asylum-age, it was art critic Roger Cardinal who coined the term Outsider art, or Art Brut (French for raw or rough art). Drawing on interior monologues, many outsider artists began pushing aside the flotsam and jetsam of formula art to create an art movement that was shaped by contours of human experience that have remained on the fringes. The colour palettes were unpredictable, the media was unusual but the colloquialism of their themes was breathing magical, dream-like allegorical life into this art genre. It was no small wonder that Paul Klee, Max Ernest, Jean Dubuffet, Picasso were deeply influenced by not only the buzz built around it but also its unique form and content.
One of the best illustrations of what a psychiatric institution can do with the hidden talent of their patients is the Gugging Psychiatric hospital near Vienna. The Gugging Artists live in an Art Brut Centre and collectively deal with their inner chaos, their fog of fear and extreme angst by building, sculpting and painting. Frequently presented in mainstream galleries and museums, the Gugging Artists present a model for psychiatric reforms based on art therapy. There are other examples of communities of Outsider artists but mostly the movement has been driven by the individuals living in solitude as obsessive recluses. Their work presented in pop up art fairs in Europe, latin America and Japan has also found an annual home in New York.
India can claim an acclaimed Outsider Artist in Nek Chand, whose sculptural creation is the Rock Garden at Chandigarh. It’s time now for Delhi to bring in the Outsiders through seminars, exhibitions and film shows on Outsider Art.
After turning cart wheels trying to find sponsors, Singh says that she is essentially driven by her own commitment to this art genre which she discovered during bouts of illness and soul crunching loneliness. Her exhibition follows intense workshops with celebrated Outsider artists Francesco Garieri from France and Ayesgul Ozbek from Turkey who were present at the fest. “We experienced delightful excitement and epiphany and spent hours working together, taking small breaks to eat cheese toast and hummus and smell our coffee,” says Singh. Well, we are already smelling sequels in the air.
(The writer is a Joint Secretary in Ministry of Coal and Mines)