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Postcards from the Edge: Outsider Art
Detail of "The St. Adolf-RIng of Oberburg," 1918 by Adolf Wolfli Email to friend
Ever since the collector Jean Dubuffet hailed the artwork of the wild, untrained geniuses who toiled far from the academies, so-called "outsider art" has occupied a genre all its own. Dubuffet was the first to spot Adolf Wolfli a resident of a Swiss asylum in the early 20th century. Wolfli, a pedophile who was very likely insane, created a vast body of work that dazzles critics for its aesthetic refinement...and creeps them out with its dense and disturbing imagery. Some say the term "outsider art" is patronizing and that it's not necessary to single out artists who lack the advantages of means or mental capacity. Let the work be evaluated for what it is, not for the particular struggles of the artist. The line between inside and out.
