International Shows for Kiwi Visionary Art
New Zealand Outsider Artists To Exhibit in New York and Paris
Dec 24, 2008
The New York Outsider Art Fair, at the American Folk Art Museum from January 8 to 11, 2009, and the Galerie Impaire in Paris in April and May, will both showcase work by Antipodean self-taught and visionary artists.
The New Zealand contribution will be led by Wellington academic and curator Stuart Shepherd, who will also represent a number of Australians. Shepherd is a long-time advocate of outsider artists, people he describes as having no formal art training, and who have developed a visual language and a body of work that manifests a personal logic.
In an effort to to promote this "often neglected strand of New Zealand vernacular visual culture", Shepherd has developed a taxonomy of self-taught and visionary art, including thirteen categories ranging from geometry to symbolism and spirituality.
Although New Zealanders such as Martin Thompson have gained some international recognition (Thompson's work has been included in the "Obsessive Drawing" exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum), this is the first time works by Kiwi artists will be offered for sale at the New York Outsider Art Fair.
Creativity and Mental Health
One of the painters whose work will be on display was the late Jim Dornan, classified by Shepherd in the "comic art" and "symbolism and spirituality" categories. Dornan, whose work was saved from being destroyed after his death by a neighbour, spent periods of time in psychiatric institutions, and a concern with health and disease is reflected in some of his painting.
Shepherd's website observes that Dornan painted not only about "the health and illness of the individual mind and body, but that of the larger organs of...the health-care system, the education system, our social system, our rituals, our drugs". Visionary and self-taught artists, like many mainstream artists, are often concerned not only with with aesthetics or with self-expression but with communicating a broader message.
Many outsider artists have experienced mental health issues, and their work in New Zealand (referenced in the article New Zealand Visionary Art Grows) has a community of support including actor and writer Jo Randerson.
Randerson's reluctance to label those with an alternative vision as being "ill" would be supported by a finding made in 1994 by sociologists Peter and Dianne Beatson. In their study The Arts in Aotearoa (Palmerston North: Massey University), they observed that in general "the deviance from conventional standards of social normality and the artistic output have all been real enough to give credence to the popular image of the Great Artist", and also that many New Zealand artists fit into the mould of gifted outsider.
Satire and Outsider Art
Another visual creative whose work will be included in the New York exhibition is Ray Ritchie, who uses recycled materials and is described by Shepherd as "one who permits a poor mortal to find wonder in the ordinary". Some of Ritchie's work involves the humorous recasting of signs and much of it features text.
Andrew Blythe, Reece Tong, Colin Korovin, Daniel Phillips, Robert Rapson, Justin Morshuis and Martin Thompson will also contribute to the New Zealand presence at the Fair.
The exhibition at Impaire Gallery in Paris later in the year will feature work on paper and photography (The Wellingtonian, December 18, 2008).
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