How “Problematic” Outsider Art Avoids Scandal
Outsider art is rife with nude women, violence, expletives, and imagery that you wouldn’t want to view with your parents. The drawings of Henry Darger focus on naked, often-sexualized children. Morton Bartlett created a series of eerie dolls and photographed many of them sans clothing—or, as in Untitled (Girl at the Beach) (1950), so thinly sheathed that their nipples and pubic areas are still visible. On signs he hung around his Louisiana home, the self-proclaimed “prophet” Royal Robertson rendered angry, misogynistic language aimed at his ex-wife. For his part, Miroslav Tichý photographed women unaware they were being captured; his oeuvre is full of blurry, voyeuristic shots.
Dark, untempered psychologies pervade this work. While raw emotions and impulses are, of course, responsible for much creative output, the lack of emotional restraint characterizing art made by Darger, Bartlett, Robertson, and Tichý can be jarring. In a culture that regularly lambastes male painters, photographers, and sculptors forobjectifying women (Degas) or promoting pedophilia (Balthus), it’s surprising that these outsider artists haven’t received similar scoldings. Recently, I asked a few art dealers why we hold mainstream artists to different ethical standards. While one disagreed with the premise of my question, another posited a simple rationale: Our acceptance of artwork with upsetting or offensive motifs ultimately depends on the creators’ intended audience.
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