From the outside in: How an ‘elastic’ American art field is expanding to accept self-taught, visionary, and outsider artists by Brooke Davis Anderson

From the outside in: How an ‘elastic’ American art field is expanding to accept self-taught, visionary, and outsider artists

Brooke Davis Anderson
The director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum examines the impact of several recent groundbreaking shows on previously marginalized artists, and what this means for our visual culture
Horace Pippin, Interior, 1944, from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., gift of Mr. and Mrs. Meyer P. Potamkin, currently featured in 'Outliers and American Vanguard Art,' currently on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art through March 17, 2019.
Horace Pippin, Interior, 1944, from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., gift of Mr. and Mrs. Meyer P. Potamkin, currently featured in 'Outliers and American Vanguard Art,' currently on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art through March 17, 2019.
Howard Finster, George Washington, #6,903, 1987, at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, T. Marshall Hahn Collection; © Howard Finster/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Howard Finster, George Washington, #6,903, 1987, at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, T. Marshall Hahn Collection; © Howard Finster/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
An expanded definition of outsider art could finally free marginalized practitioners from the 'folk art' box. Left: Judith Scott, Untitled, 2004, fiber and mixed media. Courtesy of The Museum of Everything, London, © Creative Growth Art Center. Right: Betye Saar, Indigo Mercy, 1975, mixed media. Courtesy of The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, gift of the Nzingha Society, Inc., © Betye Saar.
An expanded definition of outsider art could finally free marginalized practitioners from the 'folk art' box. Left: Judith Scott, Untitled, 2004, fiber and mixed media. Courtesy of The Museum of Everything, London, © Creative Growth Art Center. Right: Betye Saar, Indigo Mercy, 1975, mixed media. Courtesy of The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, gift of the Nzingha Society, Inc., © Betye Saar.
An untitled fabric collage-quilt by Rosie Lee Tompkins, 1996, chosen by curator Lynn Cooke for 'Outliers and American Vanguard Art.' Photo by Sharon Risedorph, courtesy of the Eli Leon Trust.
An untitled fabric collage-quilt by Rosie Lee Tompkins, 1996, chosen by curator Lynn Cooke for 'Outliers and American Vanguard Art.' Photo by Sharon Risedorph, courtesy of the Eli Leon Trust.
Two 1970s examples from 'Outliers and American Vanguard Art': Left: Alan Shields, Shape-Up, 1976-77, acrylic, thread, and beads on canvas belting. Courtesy of The Drawing Room Gallery, East Hampton Section, © Alan Shields Estate, photo by Gary Mamay. Right: Barbara Rossi, Rose Rock, 1972, acrylic on Plexiglas panel in artist's frame. Courtesy of the artist and Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, © Barbara Rossi.
Two 1970s examples from 'Outliers and American Vanguard Art': Left: Alan Shields, Shape-Up, 1976-77, acrylic, thread, and beads on canvas belting. Courtesy of The Drawing Room Gallery, East Hampton Section, © Alan Shields Estate, photo by Gary Mamay. Right: Barbara Rossi, Rose Rock, 1972, acrylic on Plexiglas panel in artist's frame. Courtesy of the artist and Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, © Barbara Rossi.