Colin Rhodes Livres

Exploring the intersection of photography and Art Brut, this book delves into Roger Ballen's career while highlighting his unique artistic vision. It showcases a curated selection of his photographs, alongside installations created specifically for the Halle Saint Pierre exhibition. Additionally, it includes images of objects and artworks from Ballen's personal Art Brut collection, providing a comprehensive look at his influences and contributions to contemporary art.

A fascination with the primitive lies at the heart of some of the most influential developments in Westem art produced between 1890 and 1950 - a time that witnessed both the heroic period of modern art and the apogee and decline of the West's colonial power. Many groups have been labelled primitive, including the so-called tribal peoples from Africa, Oceania and North America, but also prehistoric cultures, European peasants, the insane and children. Through the lens of their own society, many modern artists looked both to the art and to the worldview of the primitive as a means of challenging established beliefs, but the primitive to which they turned was as varied as the movements of modern art.

Outsider Art is work produced outside the mainstream of modern art by self-taught, untrained visionaries, spiritualists, eccentric recluses, folk artists, psychiatric patients, criminals, and others beyond the imposed margins of society and the art market. Coined by Roger Cardinal in 1972, the term in English derived from Jean Dubuffet's "art brut"--literally "raw art," "uncooked" by culture, unaffected by fashion, unmoved by artistic standards. In this indispensable book Colin Rhodes surveys the history and reception of Outsider Art--first championed by Dubuffet and the Surrealists, now appreciated by a wide public--while providing insight into the achievements of both major figures and newly discovered artists. From spirit-guided Madge Gill to schizophrenic Adolf WÜlfli, these individuals passionately and obsessively pursue the pictorial expression of their vision.