The brave new world of outsider art

     The term Outsider Art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for Art Brut (which literally translates as "Raw Art" or "Rough Art"), a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture. "Outsider Art" has come to include self-taught or Naïve art makers. Typically, those labeled as Outsider Artists have little or no contact with the institutions of the mainstream art world. Much Outsider Art illustrates extreme mental states, unconventional ideas, or elaborate fantasy worlds. Outsider Art has emerged as a successful art marketing category (an annual Outsider Art Fair has taken place in New York since 1992); thus the term is sometimes misapplied as a catch-all marketing label for art created by people outside the "art world" mainstream, regardless of their circumstances or the content of their work The interest in "outsider" practices among twentieth century artists and critics can be seen as part of a larger emphasis on the rejection of established values within the modernist art milieu. The early part of the 20th Century gave rise to cubism, Constructivist and Futurist movements in art, all of which involved a dramatic movement away from cultural forms of the past. Mid-century artists, including Pablo Picasso, looked "outside" the traditions of high culture for inspiration, drawing from the artifacts of "primitive" societies, the unschooled artwork of children, and vulgar advertising graphics. These are all examples of avant-garde art challenging established cultural values. Kimberly Helgeson Sam's art challenges the current rampant realism found in dog and animal art today. Stretching the imagination by freeing it from the bounds of formal art.