Exhibitions of Outsider Art Since 1947
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2017 Exhibitions of Outsider Art Since 1947 Christina McCollum The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2393 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] EXHIBITIONS OF OUTSIDER ART SINCE 1947 by CHRISTINA MCCOLLUM A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2017 © 2017 CHRISTINA MCCOLLUM ii All Rights Reserved Exhibitions of Outsider Art Since 1947 by Christina McCollum This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Art History in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ ____________________________________ Date Romy Golan Chair of Examining Committee _________________________________ ____________________________________ Date Rachel Kousser Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Mona Hadler Katherine Manthorne Kent Minturn iii THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK ABSTRACT Exhibitions of Outsider Art Since 1947 by Christina McCollum Advisor: Romy Golan The search for a “raw art,” untouched by the corrupting effects of culture, led Jean Dubuffet and others to collect, under the heading Art Brut [Outsider art], art made by the mentally ill and otherwise disenfranchised, poor, uneducated, elderly, and/or physically disabled. Since Dubuffet’s codification of Art Brut around 1945, the Outsider has been identified by cultural isolation, mental distance and a requisite discovery by some cultural insider, paternal or exploitative. This discoverer, whether doctor, artist or collector, becomes a translator of sorts, instructing audiences through exhibitions as to how they should receive this work by marginalized artists. Because there is no discourse among Outsider artists, the field does not conform to the standard paradigm of the artistic ‘movement,’ but coheres through a history of these exhibition and collecting practices. Collecting of Outsider work becomes a treasure hunt, where trophies from contact with the abnormal -- cast as capable of pure artistry -- are returned to normative realms. My dissertation charts that history through a series of exhibition case studies, from the mid-twentieth century to the present. I begin with Dubuffet’s Art Brut collection in Switzerland as background, and its dark presentation still invokes asylum. I move quickly to the United States, however. I study the history of the American Folk Art Museum and its erasures of difference among anonymous Folk artists, and then look at Southern Outsider environments such as those constructed by Howard Finster and Kenny Hill. The dissertation ends iv with the contemporary scene: the Outsider Art fair, workshop/galleries for artists with developmental disabilities and Outsiders in the mainstream. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my advisor, Professor Romy Golan, for her generous and always insightful supervision of this dissertation, as well as Professor Mona Hadler for helping me to find my voice in this text as we crossed the finish line. I am likewise grateful to Professors Katherine Manthorne and Kent Minturn for their participation on my defense panel. I appreciate, as well, the contributions of Professor Anna Chave, under whose supervision I began this project. The accomplishing of this dissertation would not have been possible without a lifetime of encouragement and many years of patient waiting from my loving mother, Enola, her mother, Enola, from my supportive step-parents, and from my father who always lends his advice when needed. I appreciate the many sacrifices of time and energy my husband, Gabriel, has made to support me in this writing, and I thank my dear sister, Catherine, and my friends Jen Cwiok and Cory Rice for the many conversations, edits, critiques, questions and giant pens that they offered over the years to this end. For Gabriel and Cressida vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………..iv List of Figures………………………………………………………………………………viii Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………1 I. Chapter One: The Collection de l’Art Brut at Lausanne……………………39 II. Chapter Two: The American Folk Art Museum and Outsider Art………….79 III. Chapter Three: Outsider Art Environments: Two Case-Studies in Conservation and Decay……………………………………………………………………134 IV. Chapter Four: Outsider Art on the Market: The Outsider Art Fair and Non-Profit Art Centers…………………………………………………………………..196 V. Conclusions………………………………………………………………..…234 Figures……………………………………………………………………………………….242 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………329 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Exterior façade of the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne. Photograph by the author, March 2015. Figure 2. Adolf Wölfli, illustrations from From the Cradle to the Grave, 1911. Wölfli was the famed patient of Dr. Walter Morgenthaler, examined in his book on the art of the mentally ill (1921). Dubuffet collected Wölfli first and he remains the foremost Art Brut artist. Figure 3. Marie standing in front of asylum artwork collected by Cesare Lombroso in Turin. Illustration from Alison Morehead’s Musée de la folie, 105. Figures 4 and 5. Dubuffet’s first Foyer downstairs at Drouin gallery. Archives of the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne. Figure 6. Rear exterior façade of Editions Gallimard building, the location of the second Foyer. Contemporary photograph. Figures 7 and 8. Installation photographs of the exhibition “Art Brut in America: The Incursion of Jean Dubuffet,” at the Lincoln Center galleries of the American Folk Art Museum, November 2015- January 2016. Archives of the American Folk Art Museum. Figure 9. The building that housed the collection during the 1960s, Rue de Sèvres, Paris. Archives of the Fondation Dubuffet, Paris. Figure 10. The collection installed at the Rue de Sèvres, n.d. (probably 1970s). Archives of the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne. Figures 11 and 12. Installation of the 1967 exhibition of Art Brut at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Archives of the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne. Figure 13. Plan for renovations to the Chateau de Beaulieu, 1975. Elevation of barn with permanent installation at right. 24 heures, édition Lausanne et environs, Lausanne, 6 April 1975. Archives of the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne. Figure 14. Interior of the contemporary installation of the Collection de l’Art Brut, which has changed little since its original installation in 1976. Photograph by the author, March 2015. Figure 15. The barn at the Chateau de Beaulieu under renovations in 1975. Photograph, originally published in Tribune de Lausanne, 5 September 1974. Archive of the Collection de l’Art Brut. Figure 16. Text panel describing Dubuffet’s donation of the Collection to Lausanne, hanging in the store at entry to the collection. Photograph by the author, March 2015. viii Figure 17. Interior view of Collection de l’Art Brut upon entry into main gallery, first floor. Photograph by the author, March 2015. Figure 18. Interior view of second floor of the Collection de l’Art Brut from central stairwell. Photograph by the author, March 2015. Figure 19. Artworks from the Collection de l’Art Brut encased in black with low lighting. Interior of the Collection de l’Art Brut. Photograph by the author, March 2015. Figure 20. Concrete sculptures by Nek Chand under a rear stairwell in very low lighting. Interior of the Collection de l’Art Brut. Photograph by the author, March 2015. Figure 21. Interior installation of the Collection de l’Art Brut with artwork by the American artist Henry Darger at left in special double-sided cases. Photograph by the author, March 2015. Figure 22. Allen Eaton’s “Arts and Crafts of the Homelands” exhibition, installed in the Rochester Memorial Gallery. Photograph, 1920. Figure 23. Downtown Gallery, interior view. Photograph, 1926. Unidentified photographer. Downtown Gallery records, 1824-1974, bulk 1926-1969. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Figure 24. Edith Halpert’s American Folk Art Gallery. Photograph, c1931. Colten Photos, photographer. Downtown Gallery records, 1824-1974, bulk 1926-1969. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Figure 25. Index of American Design exhibition, Downtown Gallery. Photograph, 29 September 1937. Lou Urban, photographer. Downtown Gallery records, 1824-1974, bulk 1926-1969. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Figure 26. Folk art exhibition at the Downtown Gallery. Photograph, taken 1950 -1970 . Unidentified photographer. Downtown Gallery records, 1824-1974, bulk 1926-1969. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Figure 27. Andrew Jackson, wooden figurehead, c1834, in the “American Folk Sculpture” exhibition. Photograph, 1931. Courtesy of the Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey. Figure 28a. Installation view of “American Folk Sculpture” at the Newark Museum. Photograph, 1931. Courtesy of the Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey. Figure 28b. “Modern German Applied Arts” exhibition at the Newark Museum. Photograph, 1912. Courtesy of the Newark Museum Archives. Figure 29. “American Painting and Sculpture, 1862–1932” exhibition at the Museum