Outsider Аrt in Art Museum: from “Comparative Material” to Art History (Case of the Museum of Modern Art) – МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ ЖУРНАЛ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ

Download article

Anna A. SUVOROVA
Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia
48, Moika Emb., Saint Petersburg, 191186 Russian Federation
Professor
Doctor of Science (Art History)
e-mail: suvorova_anna@mail.ru
ORCID: 0000-0002-6421-8514

Outsider Аrt in Art Museum: from “Comparative Material” to Art History (Case of the Museum of Modern Art)

Abstract: The article investigates transformations of the discourse of Outsider Art in the culture of the 20th – early 21st centuries through the perspective of its institutionalization and museumification. The article provides a critical analysis of the curatorial strategies of the Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY), as well as other American art institutions (National Art Gallery (Washington, DC), Brookline Museum (New York, NY), etc.), the structure of exhibitions and permanent expositions, curatorial texts of projects dedicated to outsider art. The study of the curatorial strategies of MoMA in the Outsider Art’s cases allows us to investigate how the Outsider Art's discourse was developing in the USA, and likewise, conceptual approaches of formation of its description and representation. An important aspect of this study is the examination of paradigmatic links between contemporary art and the work of outsider and self-thought artists in the curatorial, expositional practice of museums of modern art. In the MoMA’s history, legitimation and museumification of Outsider Art and close phenomena had been begun in the 1930s – early 1940s when Alfred Barr interpreted the “marginals” of art as the foundations of Modernism and Avant-garde and included its exhibitions in the strategic courses of the museum’s action. Further, after a long break, the return to work with an art of outsiders and naives had occurred in the second half of the 1980s. In the last twenty years, Outsider Art has begun to be regarded as an equal part of Art History of the 20th century (personal exhibitions, the inclusion of outsider art in the permanent exposition of MoMA, etc.).

Key words: discourse, outsider art, art brut, naïve art, modernism, avant-garde, museum, museumfication, curatorship, Museum of Modern Art, Alfred Barr.

References:

Deliss, Clementine. (2021). Metabolicheskij muzej. [The Metabolic Museum]. Moscow: Ad Marginem Press. (In Russian).
Kantor, S. G. (2019). Alfred Barr i intellektual’nye istoki muzeya sovremennogo iskusstva. [Alfred H Barr, Jr. and the Intellectual Origins of the Museum of Modern Art]. Moscow: Ad Marginem Press, Muzej sovremennogo iskusstva «Garazh». (In Russian).
МacGregor, J. M. (1989). The discovery of the art of the insane. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.
O’Doherty, Brian. (2015). Vnutri belogo kuba. [Inside the White Cube]. Moscow: Ad Marginem Press. (In Russian).
O’Neill, Paul. (2015). Kul’tura kuratorstva i kuratorstvo kul’tur(y). [The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Culture(s)]. Moscow: Ad Marginem Press. (In Russian).
Obrist, Hans Ulrich. (2016). Kratkaya istoriya kuratorstva. [A Brief History of Curating]. Moscow: Ad Marginem Press. (In Russian).
Smith, Terry. (2015). Osmyslyaya sovremennoe kuratorstvo. [Thinking Contemporary Curating]. Moscow: Ad Marginem Press. (In Russian).
Suvorova, А.А. (2018). Syurrealizm i iskusstvo autsajderov. [Surrealism and Outsider Art]. In Mezhdunarodnyj zhurnal issledovaniĭ kul’tury. [International Journal of Culture Research]. 4 (33), 187–207. (In Russian).
Schubert, Karsten. (2016). Udel kuratora. Koncepciya muzeya ot Velikoj francuzskoj revolyucii do nashih dnej. [The Curator’s Egg: The Evolution of the Museum Concept from the French Revolution to the Present Day]. Moscow: Ad Marginem Press. (In Russian).
African Negro Art. Mar 18–May 19, 1935. MoMA. URL: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2937 (accessed 15.03.2021).
American Folk Art: the Art of the Common Man in America, 1750-1900. Nov 30, 1932–Jan 14, 1933, MoMA. URL: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2930 (accessed 12.03.2021).
American Sources of Modern Art (Aztec, Mayan, Incan). May 8–Jul 1, 1933. MoMA. URL: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2932 (accessed 15.03.2021).
Black Folk Art in America, 1930–1980. URL: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/exhibitions/983 (accessed 29.01.2022).
Cardinal, R. (1972). Outsider Art. London: Studio Vista; New York : Praeger Publishers.
Collection 1940s–1970s, Gallery 412 «Domestic Disruption». URL: https://www.moma.org/calendar/galleries/5261 (accessed 29.01.2022).
Cooke, Lynne. (Ed.). (2018). Outliers and American Vanguard Art. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
Degree Zero Drawing at Midcentury Nov 1, 2020–Jun 5, 2021. MoMA. URL: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5223 (accessed 29.01.2022).
Disasters of War: Francisco de Goya, Henry Darger, Jake and Dinos Chapman Nov 19, 2000–Feb 25, 2001. MoMA PS1. URL: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/4709 (accessed 26.01.2022).
Glossolalia: Languages of Drawing Mar 26–Jul 7, 2008 MoMA. Press release. URL: https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_press-release_387155.pdf?_ga=2.178175909.1270147068.1643044878-592711865.1641833469 (accessed 25.01.2022).
Henri Rousseau Feb 21–Jun 4, 1985. MoMA. URL: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1706 (accessed 15.01.2022).
Flahutez, F. (2023). L’aurora degli autodidatti tra Francia e Stati Uniti (1913–1942). Ossetvatorio Outsider Art. Primavera (25), 138–150.
Henri Rousseau. Mar 18–May 3, 1942. MoMA. URL: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2798 (accessed 14.01.2022).
Indian Art of the United States. Jan 22–Apr 27, 1941. MoMA. URL: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2998 (accessed 15.03.2021).
Joseph E. Yoakum. What I Saw. Through Mar 19. MoMA. URL: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5320 (accessed 29.01.2022).
Les maîtres populaires de la réalité. (1937). Zurich: Kunsthaus.
Cahill, Holger, Gauthier, Maximilien. (1938). Masters of popular painting: modern primitives of Europe and America. New York, N.Y.: Museum of Modern Art.
Masters of Popular Painting: Modern Primitives of Europe and America. Apr 27–Jul 24, 1938. MoMA. URL: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2090 (accessed 09.01.2022).
Memorial exhibition: the collection of the late Miss Lizzie P. Bliss, vice-president of the museum May 17 – September 27, 1931. (1931). Museum of Modern Art. New York: The Plandome Press.
Modern Primitives: Artists of the People. Oct 21, 1941–Apr 30, 1944. MoMA. URL: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1703 (accessed 11.03.2021).
Musgrave, Victor, Cardinal, Roger. (1979). Outsiders: An art without precedent or tradition. London : Authors and Arts Council of Great Britain.
Peiry, L. (2006). Art Brut: The Origins of Outsider Art. Paris: Flammarion.
Religious Folk Art of the Southwest Apr 28–Jun 13, 1943. MoMA. URL: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/3131 (accessed 10.03.2021).
Rhodes, C. (2010). Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives. London : Thames & Hudson.
Rousseau, Valérie. (Ed.). (2017). The Hidden Art: 20th – early 21st Century Self-thought Artist from the Audrey B. Heckler Collection. Preface by Anne-Imelda Radice; contributions from Jane Kallir and 29 additional scholars. New York: Skira Rizzoli/American Folk Art Museum.
Séraphine Louis und Wilhelm Uhde: Die wunderbare und tragische Geschichte einer französischen Malerin und ihres deutschen „Entdeckers“. URL: https://paris-blog.org/tag/seraphine-de-senlis/?fbclid=IwAR2sDHIXjGfSWk2vPQNYBejUygGRLVCGIhMvVhq_ghRjq62ZOE_yr0XhUQE#_ftn48 (accessed 12.01.2022).
The 55th International Art. Exhibition entitled Il Palazzo Enciclopedico (The Encyclopedic Palace). URL: https://www.labiennale.org/en/il-palazzo-enciclopedico (accessed 29.01.2022).
The Arts in Therapy. Feb 3–Mar 7, 1943. MoMA. URL: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/3127 (accessed 11.01.2022).
The Paintings of Morris Hirshfield. Jun 23–Aug 1, 1943, MoMA. URL: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2313 (accessed 19.01.2022).
Thévoz, M. (1975). Art brut. Geneva : Skira, diff. Flammarion.
Tuchman, M. (1992). Parallel visions: modern artists and outsider art. Los Angeles/Princeton: Los Angeles County Museum of Art / Princeton University Press.
Wunderkammer: A Century of Curiosities Jul 30–Nov 10, 2008. MoMA. URL: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/272 (accessed 27.01.2022).

For Citation:

Suvorova, A. (2023) Outsider Аrt in Art Museum: from “Comparative Material” to Art History (Case of the Museum of Modern Art). International Journal of Cultural Research, 3 (52). 6–21. DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2023_3_6

DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2023_3_6