July 1997 compulsion by Leslie Harpold |
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Outside Looking In
My taste in art runs outside the mainstream and inside the main art world.
Which is to say, I like some quirky offbeat things that are generally made
by artists who are artists, and fit in with the model of the gallery
machine. I like some folk art, the old circus tapestries from the 20s and
30s and some commercial art - old Belle Époque posters have some charm, I
fall in the narrow slot between true esoterica and people who just want the
art to match their couch. Like they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous
thing.
I'm a seeker. I took a lot of art history in college and studied art and
I've made some art myself, for better or worse. I can prattle endlessly
about religious art, but modern art, especially the post 80s art is a
little more evasive to me as far as what's current in the art world.
Photography is a little easier to decipher, for some reason, and that could
just be germane to my particular mindset or my having already accepted the
disappearance of the real. When it comes to keeping up with the kids
today though, I sometimes need a little help.
I confess, I read Art Forum, and Art News and a lot of the other art rags
out there like Eye and Art In America if there's a good story mentioned on
the cover. However, when I discovered Raw Vision, the way I look at art
began to change.
Raw Vision is a magazine of Art Brut, Outsider Art and Folk Art. Mostly
outsider art. What is outsider art? Mainly art made by people who never
went to art school and are "self taught" - the art they create comes mainly
from within, and they have no apparent influences or teachers to thank for
their style. Most of them lack a lot of education and there tends to be a
certain rough quality to their work, a primitivist edge if you will.
The magazine is put together by people who obviously care about this art and
the people that make it. The printing is excellent and the vellum-like
paper stock it's printed on are kind of a sensory treat, a smooth companion
to the rough imagery. What I like most about the magazine, however, is the
writing.
The writers are art critics from all over, the most recent issue has NY
Times art critics and writers who've written for Time and other fancy
mainstream pubs. Good writers, who feel passionate or interested, or at
least are skilled in conveying a sense of passion or interest in what they
are writing about. There is a certain passion to outsider art, if only
that most of it wasn't created for gallery shows, but as an expression of
the artist's passion to create.
At least before they got discovered.
Here's where the real beauty of the magazine lies for me. In reading about
the outsider art, what makes it outsider and what about the work I may look
at and say "mess" makes it something worthy of media attention. Just
because something is worthy of media attention doesn't change my mind or
the way I react to something on a gut level, but I can appreciate all kinds
of things I don't like if I understand them better. With the exception of
course, of Julian Schnabel's work. Even I have a limit for sophistry.
It is by reading about the outside that I understand the inside better now.
By learning the boundaries of outsider and insider art through reading
about the outside, what comprises the inside has become more clear for me.
There is a lot of comparison between the two, and through that I have
learned, in effect, two things at once. I love that.
Occasionally, there will be some work in there that I love, on one level or
another and I will be seduced by the vulpine charm of these art rebels.
Most recently captivating me is Harold Blank, Texas Art Car creator and
commentator. It's the old redneck meets auteur formula that works so well
for me.
So, if you're looking to try to freshen up the way you look at things,
check out Raw Vision. It's pricey, but sometimes spending twelve bucks on
an art magazine can be more of a destination than a movie and a big box of
goobers. It's the same price, and if you read it in a comfortable chair at
home, your ass won't fall asleep, and your mind will be more wide awake
than after sitting through the latest Jim Carrey face twisting epic.
back to the junk drawer
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