How to Look at Outsider Art
by Lyle Rexer
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Book Summary Information
Author: Lyle RexerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-05-01
ISBN: 0810992027
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Book Reviews of How to Look at Outsider Art
Book Review: Excellent reference for ALL art observation
Summary: 5 Stars
Lyle Rexer has opened a door for me when it comes to "outsider art." Because I am new to the genre of Art Brut, my inexperience didn't recognize the possibility that the two terms would not refer to the same thing. Outsider Art and Art Brut (or raw art) are terms one hears used interchangeably despite the fact that they are not identical concepts. The keepers of Art Brut history would define the term as art produced by the historically disenfranchised artist - criminals, children and psychotics - with the primary spotlight illuminating the latter. Outsider art, on the other hand, seems to refer to un-taught or self-taught artistic activity that has become increasingly familiar over the last 4 to 6 decades.
Rexer does an admirable job representing both systems of expression but it is clear that his sentiments lay firmly embedded in the Art Brut base camp.
The question How to Look at Outsider Art answers for is the very one the title promises to investigate. Rexer is succinct:
How is it possible to appreciate art that is apparently without precedent? How can we understand objects that are unlike anything we have seen - and in some cases strike us as deeply disturbing? (70)
Because our animal-brains sort millions of pieces of information every minute it is necessary that some portions of the onslaught be sorted using different methods. Some information is routed to the discard pile if it poses no threat or garners no curiosity - the typical noise-making of one's house or work environment for example. Some information is processed via a central nervous system reflex arc - the system that saves us from having to conceptualize, interpret and act in situations that mean the difference between safety, injury and survival (i.e.: take your hand off the hot stove before you burn yourself; move away from the person swinging the machete; and so on). The information that is left needs our active attention. This is where art can trip us up.
Human beings are visual-capture animals meaning that we use our sight as the primary interpretive tool while conducting our daily business. As such we are rapid processers and we have thousands of pre-made mental boxes that information is routed into in order to make our experience of living tolerable. When we come across something that our minds cannot decipher immediately we are forced to stop, to step outside the paradigms we've habitualized and make new neural connections. Rexer teaches the reader ways to do just that when viewing Outsider Art and, as a consequence, all art really. Because moving away from our comfortable definitions and assumptions is difficult Rexer offers "general guidelines for `interrogating' the works." (70).
Rexer suggests that when we observe outsider art we should ask some basic questions:
* What type of art are we viewing - wood work, painting, mixed media?
* What kinds of materials are used? How do they effect what you see and feel?
* What kind of imagery is used in the piece? Is there a purpose or a meaning for you as the observer?
* Is there an appropriate rubric you are comfortable comparing the work to?
* Is the piece unusual or stereotypical in terms of what's common at the time, in the genre and/or in the history of the genre?
* How does the artwork compare to other works by the same artist?
* Is it able to stand alone as an independent work? Does it provide its own definitions or leave them to the observer to determine?
* Do you know anything about the artist that could inform your opinion of the work further?
* What assumptions have you made about the art or artist? (75)
The beauty of these questions, of course, is that they are valid stepping off places for looking at any kind of art. The importance here is that so many of us schlep around to galleries and museums and don't have a clue what to think or ask or feel. It would be convenient to be spontaneously inspired to immediate understanding by every piece of artwork one saw but hardly valuable in the scheme of things. Because Outsider Art and/or Art Brut is likely to demand more or demand different things from its observers these questions give us something to anchor our understanding in - a way to process that feels natural and, thereby, places it into the category of familiar so that we spend less time starring with mouths hung open in confusion and more time starring with mouths hung open in awe or delight.
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