| Outsider Art may best be defined as images that are created by artists who are self-taught, considered to be outside of the dominant standards of psychological normality, and unaffected by aesthetic standards and historical traditions of the mainstream art world. The goal in this dissertation is to uncover both the past and present cultural and psychological meanings of these radically innovative expressions. Considering the heightened interest in this work during the past several years, this study seeks to provide answers to the following questions: What psychological, cultural, and collective desire is the imaginative language of this rebellious art form fulfilling? What forces are contributing to its growing appeal?;To start this project, a historical view of Outsider Art is examined in relation to our Western culture's shifting attitudes toward art and insanity, the nature and function of the creative act, the persistent link between genius and madness, and the influences of Romanticism, Expressionism, and Primitivism. The attempt to classify, diagnose, and interpret these extraordinary images is also investigated through the groundbreaking research of physicians, psychiatrists, and theorists working within the intellectual climate of the early 20th century. In order to address the current cultural and aesthetic elements of Outsider Art, this phenomenon is further inspected by means of several contemporary critical art theories. Delving into the world of depth psychology, Freud's attempts to explain the mysteries of the imagination through sublimation and pathography are linked to the world of Outsider Art, and a further exploration into his notion of the uncanny aids in explaining the odd psychological responses that this work often stimulates in viewers. Jung's visionary model of creativity, framed within the dynamics of archetypal structures, also sheds light on this project, and Hillman's theory of archetypal psychology, with special emphasis on a new vision of Dionysian consciousness, provides another way to interpret this inventive work. Finally, Nietzsche's model of art, based on the opposing archetypal forces of Apollo and Dionysus, offers insight into both the subject matter of Outsider Art and the shape of our current aesthetic and psychological climate. |
