This thesis deals with the art created at Swedish mental institutions during the 20th century, a medium which generally is found synonymous with outsider art in previous scholarship. The overarching aim is to categorize visual art created under the circumstances of such institutions, exclusively based on its visual expression. Following Wölfflin’s five principles of objective classification, formal analysis is employed. To accomplish the thesis’ aim, differences between recognized outsider artists and institutionalized producers of art are investigated, which in turn sheds light on the definition of outsider art. Focus is put on the actual paintings, and not on the identities of the creators of the works, nor their history as patients at the different institutions. Primary data consist of photographed paintings from the archives of Säter Mental Health Care Museum in Dalarna, Sweden, while additional historical accounts describing 20th century art movements are implemented to justify each painting’s categorical belonging. The results support that a biographical difference, between the two strands of art, is explanative for the current misunderstanding of what outsider art actually is. This fosters further engagements with what variables ought to determine a work of art’s categorization.

This thesis redresses the lack of scholarly attention paid to painted circus banners produced in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century by exploring the extent to which American folk art painting scholarship, methodologies, and objects can be used to articulate the meaning and significance of banner painting. This study expands the disciplinary treatment of banner painting by introducing domesticated art as a means of representing non-academic art produced in the U.S. The thesis also presents a model for exploring banner painting after identifying traditional American folk art painting methodologies, which fail to investigate banner painting style, format, and artistic training associated with banner work.

Uppsatsen syfte är att undersöka en esoterisk bildtradition som en separat bildvetenskap utifrån en diskursanalytisk metod. Frågan ställs hur denna bilddiskurs formerats, om vi kan identifiera en särskild estetik och hur vår bild av den har tillkommit. Uppsatsen undersöker här omgivande narrativ och utsagor. Vidare undersöks samtidskonstens intresse för den esoteriska bildtraditionen där historiska material aktualiseras i nya kontexter, men även dess intresse för aktualisering av en historisk estetik i nya verk. Som utgångspunkt i undersökningen står tolv målningar funna i frimurarordens arkiv för drygt tio år sedan, troligtvis gjorda av hertig Karl, senare kung Karl XIII, och som var en del av den esoteriska krets vid Stockholms slott som hertigen underhöll. Uppsatsen undersöker hur vi utifrån ett samtida perspektiv kan se på dessa målningar som en del av en historisk esoterisk bildtradition men även som rekontextualiserade idag.  Vidare undersöks olika begrepp för hur temporaliteter kan skapas och verka när en estetik fortlever oberoende av tid och plats. Undersökningen visar att det historiska textuella material som ligger till grund för de esoteriska bilderna är centralt för hur denna estetik har utvecklats och överlevt. Vidare visar undersökningen att denna estetik genom sin fortlevnad i samtiden kan identifieras som ett ikoniskt tecken för esoterismen.

The purpose of this thesis is to study and analyse collections of outsider art in two Swedish Medical History Museums, Medicinhistoriska museet in Uppsala and Mentalvårdsmuseet in Säter. The work explores how the history of the museums, how art collections were established, the outsider artist as well as how the two museums work the collections today. The empirical part of the study is based on the fieldwork that the author conducted at the Medicinhistoriska museet in Uppsala and Mentalvårdsmuseet in Säter during two separate days in the winter/spring of 2022. Both observations of the museum room were made, as well as interviews with the two curators in charge of the art collections. Attentive observations and systematic notes from constitute the basis for the description of the material and immaterial features of the museum. For the chapters on the historical and cultural context concerning outsider art, art brut, psychiatric care and how the hospitals became museums, literary sources were used.  The result of the study shows that outsider art made in a hospital is a very specific part of outsider art and art brut because of the very special conditions of an often locked psychiatric care unit. It implies that outsider art made in psychiatric care have not been seen as real art, not been viewed as interesting for the public. There has existed an authorised heritage discourse (“AHD”) in the hospitals and well as in the later museums which has led to the collections not been correctly taken care of, and research about the patients has not been made. Instead, the patients work has been stored incorrectly in attics, basements and in un-locked storage areas with only a few ”aesthetically pleasing” works showed in the museum.      Further, the study shows how the art collections in the two medical hospitals correctly used and worked with, can be a part of removing the stigma around mental disease and people living with it.  The conclusions to be drawn from this are that the complexity of the art collections of outsider art made in psychiatric care lie in the fact that mental illness, psychiatric hospitals, and outsider art have been under a stigma, as well as the fact that the patients’ stories being stories from the margin. This is a two-years master’s thesis in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies.

No description available.

Au 20e siècle en France et en Allemagne, l’art moderne prend son essor. Certains, comme Francastel, qualifient cet art de destruction d’un espace plastique classique. Cette destruction devient un vecteur de création chez plusieurs artistes qui, suite aux deux grandes guerres, remettent en question leur état « civilisé » et se tournent vers le « primitif » pour offrir une autre voie, loin de tout processus civilisateur. Cette admiration pour les peuples primitifs ainsi que pour les productions artistiques d’enfants, d’amateurs et de « fous » est visible chez plusieurs collectionneurs d’art. En constituant des collections d’art marginal, ces derniers défendaient une idéologie qui propose une autre forme de culture en remplacement d’une civilisation dépassée. Grâce à leurs collections, la libre expression se positionna contre le rationalisme occidental. On compte, parmi ces collectionneurs, le psychiatre Hans Prinzhorn, le marchand d’art Wilhelm Udhe et les artistes André Breton, Jean Dubuffet et Arnulf Rainer. Chacun d’eux a eu un impact sur la construction du récit de l’art moderne et de l’art contemporain. Leurs collections ont chacune sa spécificité et offrent des vocabulaires différents pour parler de productions artistiques marginales, c’est-à-dire se développant « hors culture ». C’est par l’analyse des terminologies employées par les collectionneurs, principalement la dénomination d’art pathologique, que nous tracerons un portrait de la construction historique de l’art marginal en lien avec l’art moderne / Modern art began its rise at the beginning of the twentieth century in both France and Germany. Somme art theorists like Francastel, propose an identifying characteristic of modern art is the deconstruction of the classic plastic space. During the two World Wars, many artists used this deconstructive process, thus reinvigorating art with ‘‘primitive’’ styles which challenged the ‘‘civilized’’ art of the day. This fascination with the ‘‘primitive’’, including art from children, amateurs, and the ‘‘mentally ill’’, is apparent in many art collections of the time. By collecting these forms of art, the collectors were supporting this new ideology in opposition to occidental rationalism. The psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn, along with the art sellers Wilhelm Udhe and the artists Andre Breton, Jean Dubuffet and Arnulf Rainer, are a few of the notable collectors. They each influenced the progress of Modern Art; the impact of which is now evident in contemporary art. The individuality of their unique collections offers different interpretations of the marginalized ‘‘outsider art’’. By analyzing the terminologies employed by these collectors, particularly in regards to ‘‘pathological art’’, we may outline a portrait of the development of ‘‘outsider art’’ as it progressed along side modern art.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Film and Television, August 2017 / Located in the town of Nieu Bethesda in the Karoo desert, the Owl House is a fascinating heritage museum that was once the home to outsider artist, Helen Martins. Much work has been created about the eccentric Helen Martins and her unusual home, and appears in the form of books, films, music and plays. The content of these works follow a similar pattern, and it is the aim of this research and film to explore a less literal interpretation of the Owl House, and its creators, Helen Martins and Koos Malgas. The Owl House is re-imagined through the lens of an experimental essay film, juxtaposing footage of the creative eastern imagery of the Owl House (in South Africa) with actual footage of the east (India, Thailand and Laos). In exploring these binaries, an investigation of theory of the landscape, home, mobility and hermeneutics takes place. Furthermore, these theories and concepts are looked at in relation to the politics of an apartheid, and later, a democratic South Africa. The Owl House is therefore analysed as the collaboration of the white, female Helen Martins, and the coloured, male Koos Malgas. / XL2018

Au 20e siècle en France et en Allemagne, l’art moderne prend son essor. Certains, comme Francastel, qualifient cet art de destruction d’un espace plastique classique. Cette destruction devient un vecteur de création chez plusieurs artistes qui, suite aux deux grandes guerres, remettent en question leur état « civilisé » et se tournent vers le « primitif » pour offrir une autre voie, loin de tout processus civilisateur. Cette admiration pour les peuples primitifs ainsi que pour les productions artistiques d’enfants, d’amateurs et de « fous » est visible chez plusieurs collectionneurs d’art. En constituant des collections d’art marginal, ces derniers défendaient une idéologie qui propose une autre forme de culture en remplacement d’une civilisation dépassée. Grâce à leurs collections, la libre expression se positionna contre le rationalisme occidental. On compte, parmi ces collectionneurs, le psychiatre Hans Prinzhorn, le marchand d’art Wilhelm Udhe et les artistes André Breton, Jean Dubuffet et Arnulf Rainer. Chacun d’eux a eu un impact sur la construction du récit de l’art moderne et de l’art contemporain. Leurs collections ont chacune sa spécificité et offrent des vocabulaires différents pour parler de productions artistiques marginales, c’est-à-dire se développant « hors culture ». C’est par l’analyse des terminologies employées par les collectionneurs, principalement la dénomination d’art pathologique, que nous tracerons un portrait de la construction historique de l’art marginal en lien avec l’art moderne / Modern art began its rise at the beginning of the twentieth century in both France and Germany. Somme art theorists like Francastel, propose an identifying characteristic of modern art is the deconstruction of the classic plastic space. During the two World Wars, many artists used this deconstructive process, thus reinvigorating art with ‘‘primitive’’ styles which challenged the ‘‘civilized’’ art of the day. This fascination with the ‘‘primitive’’, including art from children, amateurs, and the ‘‘mentally ill’’, is apparent in many art collections of the time. By collecting these forms of art, the collectors were supporting this new ideology in opposition to occidental rationalism. The psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn, along with the art sellers Wilhelm Udhe and the artists Andre Breton, Jean Dubuffet and Arnulf Rainer, are a few of the notable collectors. They each influenced the progress of Modern Art; the impact of which is now evident in contemporary art. The individuality of their unique collections offers different interpretations of the marginalized ‘‘outsider art’’. By analyzing the terminologies employed by these collectors, particularly in regards to ‘‘pathological art’’, we may outline a portrait of the development of ‘‘outsider art’’ as it progressed along side modern art.

Denne oppgaven omhandler kunstsjangeren Outsider Art i norsk kontekst, med særlig fokus på kunsten som ble laget av elevene ved skolen på den nord-norske sentralinstitusjonen Trastad Gård. Skolen og kunstnerne blir stilt opp mot rådende teorier innenfor sjangeren for å få svar på spørsmålet: Kan kunsten fra Trastad Gård defineres som Outsider Art? / This paper deals with the art genre Outsider Art in a Norwegian context, with particular focus on the art that was created by students at the school at Trastad Gård (Trastad Gård was the main Northern Norwegian institution for people with mental disabilities). The school and the artists are examined against the prevailing theories in the genre to answer the question: Can art from Trastad Gård be defined as Outsider Art?

Depuis les années 1930, un lent processus d’« artification » investit des lieux de vieembellis par leurs propres habitants avec des techniques improvisées. Considérés àl’origine comme des curiosités locales, ces sites sont révélés au monde de l’art par lessurréalistes, qui amorcent leur documentation. Dans l’après-guerre, ils connaissent uneréception de plus en plus enthousiaste au sein de certains milieux artistiques et serontannexés successivement à l’art médiumnique, à l’art naïf, à l’art brut, à l’outsider art, àl’architecture fantastique, entre autres, donnant lieu à une pléthore de définitions. Cesenvironnements irréguliers seront alors considérés souvent comme l’expressionspontanée d’impulsions intérieures, sans influences ni tradition. Cette thèse propose derevenir aux origines de cette forme artistique, en révélant le mouvement circulaire qui larelie, d’une part, aux cultures populaires et, d’autre part, aux courants officiels del’histoire de l’art contemporaine. Elle examine également les conditions de sa réceptions,dans un contexte dominé jusque dans les années 1970 par le paradigme primitiviste,avant de se concentrer sur la multiplication des initiatives qui, depuis la fin des années1970, marquent un renouvellement du regard. Tout au long, les environnementsirréguliers sont questionnés dans leur faculté à associer des notions fondamentales –art, culture, marginalité, architecture, grotesque, baroque, ornemental, entre autres – età être saisis comme un outil opératoire désignant une forme d’authenticité artistique ouculturelle. / Since the 1930s, a slow process of « artification » invested living spaces decorated bytheir own inhabitants with improvised techniques. Originally regarded as localcuriosities, these sites have been introduced to the artistic world by the Surrealists, whobegan their documentation. In the post war period, they have been seen with increasingenthusiasm in some artistic circles and then have been linked to mediumistic art, naiveart, art brut, outsider art, fantastic architecture, among others, creating a plethora ofdefinitions. Irregular environments have often been considered as the spontaneousexpression of inner impulses, without influence or tradition. This thesis proposes toreturn to the origins of this form of art, revealing the circular movement that connects it,on one hand, to the popular cultures and, on the other hand, to the officials movementsof the history of contemporary art. It also examines the conditions of its own reception,in a context dominated until the 1970s by the primitivist paradigm, before of focusing onthe many initiatives that, since the late 1970s, brought a renewed look. All along,irregular environments have been questioned in their ability to combine fundamentalconcepts - art, architecture, culture, marginality, ornamental, among others - and to betaken as an operational tool for a form of artistic or cultural authenticity.