Art on the outside

9:18am Thursday 25th September 2008

Seven years after Orleans House Gallery brought Outsider Art in from the margins with the groundbreaking Private Worlds exhibition, a new show at the gallery is continuing to showcase the very best work by an extraordinary group of artists.

In 1972 art historian Roger Cardinal first used the term Outsider Art to describe work which belongs to no movement or school. Outsider artists are mainly self-taught, have little knowledge of art history and often explore their own psyche in their work.

The new Orleans House show, Eloquent Visions: Outsider and Visionary Art, is collaboration with Richmond’s Henry Boxer Gallery, the leading Outsider Art gallery in Britain, and Cardinal is delighted that the promotion of art by Outsiders is continuing.

He says: “Once more the elegant setting of the Orleans House Gallery is the venue for an exhibition of art works produced by Outsiders and Visionaries – non-professional creators whose commitment has nothing to do with becoming a celebrity or making a killing on the art market.

“Eloquent Obsessions demonstrates how wonderful images and designs – colourful, complex and compulsive – can arise in unusual circumstances of spiritual devotion, clairvoyance or sheer creative joy. These untaught artists are gifted dreamers who obey their own idiosyncratic impulses and stretch the imagination to its limits.”

Artists showcased in the exhibition include established Outsider Art “old masters” Adolf Wolfli, Scottie Wilson and Edward Monsiel. There is also a rare collection of late “schizophrenic watercolours” painted by cat artist Louis Wain in the Napsbury asylum during the 1930s.

Amongst the highlights of the international Outsider Art on display include examples by the enfant terrible of the Outsider Art world Henry Darger (1892-1973). Also showcased are works by Garber, Hauser, Schopke and Fisher from the renowned Maria Gugging Psychiatric Clinic, located on the outskirts of Vienna, Austria.

Henry Boxer, who co-curates the exhibition with Mark De Novellis, says: “Over the last decade, Orleans House has actively promoted all forms of marginalised creativity - from Outsider Art, artists with mental health issues, disabilities and artists within the autistic spectrum.

“They have not been afraid of staging these exhibitions and integrating works by these artists within their mainstream programme. I have contributed to a number of exhibitions since the pioneering show in 2001 and it amazing to see how far the public’s perception has changed and interest has grown in these forms of art. ”

Eloquent Obsessions runs until Sunday, October 19 at Orleans House Gallery, Riverside, Twickenham, TW1 3DJ. Admission is free. Opening times: Tuesdays – Saturdays 1pm - 5.30pm, Sundays 2pm - 5.30pm. Visit richmond.gov.uk/arts for more information

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