I'm sorry but I have no excuse for an absence of this length. It's not that there hasn't been any art to review, as there has. I went to see it, made copious notes, and never turned it into an article. I'm sorry, I hope you can forgive me, maybe we can give things another chance between us?
I hope so.
Groveling aside, there are a couple of good exhibitions on at the Whitworth at the moment. Intuition, is a fascinating, if slightly troubling exhibition of outsider art from the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection. I went to see it a few weeks ago and, well, had some personal issues with the work, and the exhibition. After this I spoke with my friends, who were very excited by the work on show. This made go back and, reappraise is the wrong word, but I went back and looked harder. I know I still have some strong opinions on outsider art, that run contrary to my peers, but I'm not sure what it is I'm basing them on. I made some notes and trying to decipher my scrawl isn't far from how I felt in the actual exhibition. Maybe I was looking "wrong", by attempting to "read" this work.
One of my thoughts on leaving the exhibition is how Outsider Art seems to be a truly modern phenomenon, in the art historical sense of that term. The work here is selected by an institution, the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection, and is placed in an art gallery, where it becomes part of the art institution of galleries, dealers and collectors. Something unintelligible to the "man in the street" becomes a feted object and symbol of intense creativity, in much the same way that abstract expressionism, and other radical art movements were. Outsider art couldn't exist without the myth of the creative genius, working alone and unanswerable to the world. The work of Henry Darger or Madge Gill exactly fits this bill.
Outsider art is presented in a similar way to the artifacts produced by foreign cultures. But instead of returning from uncharted geographic territory with trinkets and evidence of different ways of life, totems of different religions, primitive tools, etc., this work is the product of delving into unknown psychological landscapes and bringing back proof of their existence.
The work is presented without the back story of it’s creator, which has the effect of leveling the work, and allowing one to approach it without prejudice. For example, knowing that the artist had a religious intention when making something can colour ones own interpretation of it. With our own cultural markers stripped away we are forced into reacting to it. The information was provided to us in the form a little booklet, which meant you could pick and choose which artists you read about, or ignore it completely. It did have the effect of making the spectator an active participant in the exhibition, as along with the subdued lighting, having to refer to a little missal-like text to make sense of what was in front of you made the experience akin to that of a tourist in a foreign religious site. Very apt considering the work on display.
The very existence of Outsider Art and the unbridled creativity it represents and my inability to understand it, is probably reflected in my turgid and jejune writing when faced with the subject. I suppose my difficulty lies with the labeling this as Outsider Art, not with the artists or the artwork itself, though I’m not sure why. This is a fascinating glimpse into another world, which has stuck with me and made me rethink many of my preconceptions, surely the mark of an excellent and relevant exhibition.
Intuition, is at the Whitworth gallery until January 2011.
I hope so.
Groveling aside, there are a couple of good exhibitions on at the Whitworth at the moment. Intuition, is a fascinating, if slightly troubling exhibition of outsider art from the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection. I went to see it a few weeks ago and, well, had some personal issues with the work, and the exhibition. After this I spoke with my friends, who were very excited by the work on show. This made go back and, reappraise is the wrong word, but I went back and looked harder. I know I still have some strong opinions on outsider art, that run contrary to my peers, but I'm not sure what it is I'm basing them on. I made some notes and trying to decipher my scrawl isn't far from how I felt in the actual exhibition. Maybe I was looking "wrong", by attempting to "read" this work.
One of my thoughts on leaving the exhibition is how Outsider Art seems to be a truly modern phenomenon, in the art historical sense of that term. The work here is selected by an institution, the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection, and is placed in an art gallery, where it becomes part of the art institution of galleries, dealers and collectors. Something unintelligible to the "man in the street" becomes a feted object and symbol of intense creativity, in much the same way that abstract expressionism, and other radical art movements were. Outsider art couldn't exist without the myth of the creative genius, working alone and unanswerable to the world. The work of Henry Darger or Madge Gill exactly fits this bill.
Outsider art is presented in a similar way to the artifacts produced by foreign cultures. But instead of returning from uncharted geographic territory with trinkets and evidence of different ways of life, totems of different religions, primitive tools, etc., this work is the product of delving into unknown psychological landscapes and bringing back proof of their existence.
The work is presented without the back story of it’s creator, which has the effect of leveling the work, and allowing one to approach it without prejudice. For example, knowing that the artist had a religious intention when making something can colour ones own interpretation of it. With our own cultural markers stripped away we are forced into reacting to it. The information was provided to us in the form a little booklet, which meant you could pick and choose which artists you read about, or ignore it completely. It did have the effect of making the spectator an active participant in the exhibition, as along with the subdued lighting, having to refer to a little missal-like text to make sense of what was in front of you made the experience akin to that of a tourist in a foreign religious site. Very apt considering the work on display.
The very existence of Outsider Art and the unbridled creativity it represents and my inability to understand it, is probably reflected in my turgid and jejune writing when faced with the subject. I suppose my difficulty lies with the labeling this as Outsider Art, not with the artists or the artwork itself, though I’m not sure why. This is a fascinating glimpse into another world, which has stuck with me and made me rethink many of my preconceptions, surely the mark of an excellent and relevant exhibition.
Intuition, is at the Whitworth gallery until January 2011.
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