Abstract The exhibition "Muffler Men, Mu?ecos, and Other Welded Wonders" at the Fowler Museum is a display of works by Los Angeles-area mechanics who make human figures from mufflers and other auto parts. This paper shows that exhibitions like this demonstrate that there is very little handmade work that is not considered important by today's museums.
From the Paper "This type of ethnographic appreciation coexisted peacefully with the interest of artists who looked at such work primarily in aesthetic terms. But, since the 1960s, the work of folk artists has increasingly become the focus of so much attention, and subject to such enormous increases in price, that the supposed local audience for which the folk artist creates her/his work has now expanded to include gallery owners, collectors, and curators whose eager acquisition of pieces formerly assigned little monetary value has turned folk artists from avocational painters, sculptors, and quilters to professionals (Shine 99). As Shine points out, unlike movements within Modernism and postmodernism "contemporary folk art [as a category of art] was fundamentally an invention of collectors, rather than a formal aim or a fellowship of artists" (101). Similarities among works by artists in many cultures seem to derive from the similarity in the available materials rather than from specifically local traditions and folk artists seem to produce work to meet the growing demand."
This paper discusses the history and future of the term "outsider art", referring to art, made by self-taught artists, which stands outside the realm of "fine" art.
Abstract This paper explains that "outsider art", also called naif, naive or art brut, is collected by the most well-known collectors; therefore, the question arises when something becomes popular or "in" does it continue to be "outside"? Can "outsider art" continue in the years to come? The author points out that, for example, after World War I, the cultured in Europe began developing an interest in self-taught creators called "naives", such as Henri Rousseau, who were creating their artistic works throughout Europe especially France. The paper presents many examples of "outsider art" in the U.S., including Mexican-American, jailhouse and street art, some of which has entered the realm of collectors and museums, while other artist prefer to remain "Outside Art".
Table of Contents
Introduction of Thesis Statement
Introduction of Terms Based on Dubuffet and Cardinal
Move from Europe to United States
Definition of Outsider
Examples: Slaves, Mentally Ill, Spiritual, Folk, Recycled
Response to Thesis Statement
Conclusion
From the Paper ""Outsider art" continues to evolve along with changes in society. A new form of work, for example, called "recycled folk art," transform pieces of trash into new treasures. In Mexican-American Texas communities, houses are adorned by objects, colors and symbols that reflect a history over the past to present days. Many of the visually rich barrio decorations are made from everyday castoffs such as Styrofoam cups, tires and tile chips. Brightly colored trucks and cars, tree swings, and televisions act as shrines to the Virgin of San Juan. Windmills and whirligigs are made from soda cans, butterflies from scrapped tin and muffler robots from used auto parts."
