What is outsider art? Vancouver author brings to light the works of the unknown

A selection of works featured in Linda Raindaldi's book Outsider Art in Canada.

It is a term that has begun to enter common parlance in the art sphere, but few understand what ‘outsider art’ truly means.

In her latest book, Vancouver author Linda Raindaldi hopes to quell misconceptions and offer definitions in an approachable, non-academic way. With Outsider Art in Canada, the first book to tackle such subject matter in Canada, she delves into the history of the movement and the unbridled practices of over 30, self-taught artists.

Outsider art as a concept first kicked off in France in 1940, coined by well-known artist Jean Debuffet as ‘art brut’, essentially meaning ‘raw’ or ‘uncooked’ art.

“He really fought back against the art institutions and how he felt they were dictating, to him and other contemporary artists at the time, what art should be, and what they were willing to accept into their institutions,” says Raindaldi.

A book born from a psychiatric institute in Germany began circulating in France around that time, published by a psychiatrist and art historian and containing pieces that had been created at the hands of the hospital’s patients.

The question was whether the artwork of the institutionalized patients could be classed as art and not merely the “work of a crazy individual,” says Raindaldi. Using it as an example of ‘art brut,’ outsider art, Debuffet said the works represented creativity at its purest, because the creators had no official art training and no reason to compel them other than the simple compulsion to create.

“He said this is something that we should consider and admire,” says Raindaldi.

Raindaldi uses folk art that was widespread in Canada in the 70s as her own example, pieces that were created completely “outside of the story of art history” – a very defined set of events, styles and genres that are recognized in the Western world.

“Here the artists had no training, and they didn’t know about anything. They don’t know about art history or art movements and they don’t care about it either,” she says.

The official definition of ‘outsider art’ may vary from place to place, and person to person, but at its simplest, says Raindaldi, it means art for art’s sake.

Due to the desired anonymity typical of outsider artists, sourcing people willing to be interviewed and exhibited was “a challenge” when creating the book, says Raindaldi, but ultimately over 30 artists from across the country, from Kamloops to Québec, would go on to engage in discussions about their practice. While ‘outsider art’ can typically refer to the work crafted at the hands of people who sit on the margins of society, whether an eccentric or recluse, psychiatric patient or criminal, Raindaldi stresses that not all interviewed for the book fall into this category.

Many of the artist’s attached biographies touch on the lengthy, non-creative careers the outsider artists have had, the likes of RCMP officers and road pavers. Some are average people who didn’t pick up a pencil or create anything until later in life, some not until their 60s or 70s.

The works from the artists were always “very personal,” says Raindaldi, never asking the viewer to engage in a dialogue about a social issue in the same way that contemporary art does, and always prolific.

“Sometimes their homes would be jammed with artwork, you can hardly walk around their homes because there would be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pieces of art,” she said.

It’s “sobering” how much the art has taken over their lives, she added, yet they still refuse financial reward, notoriety, or even praise or acknowledgment from others.

“A lot of them are very reluctant to talk about what [their art] means,” she says.

Raindaldi says she hopes that by introducing the concept to the public with Outsider Art in Canada she hopes to change the public perception of who can truly be described as an artist, and help forge a space for the untrained in the notoriously pretentious art world.

“Canada is new to the conversation about outsider art,” she says in the book’s introduction, “and that is an enviable space to be, for it allows us to observe the landscape with fresh eyes.”