Outsider Art is a label given to art produced by people not part of the conventional art world or art establishment. Outsider artists are usually self-taught in their art skills and techniques, knowledge of art history, and work from an 'inner vision'.
The term L'Art Brut was first used by the French artist Jean Dubuffet in 1945. Dubuffet, who collected art by psychiatric patients, defined Art Brut as "works executed by people free from artistic culture [who] draw up everything from their own depths and not from the stereotypes of classical art or of modish art ... a 'chemically pure' artistic operation". 1
The term Outsider Art was first used in 1972 by British art historian Roger Cardinal in his bookOutsider Art. Katherine M Murrell, curator at theAnthony Petullo Collection of Self-Taught and Outsider Art, says: "At the heart of Art Brut is a reflection of the artist that is intense, original, and essentially positions the viewer as voyeur, suddenly a party to this private imagery." 2
