outsider art

Outsider Art consists of paintings, drawings, sculptures, assemblages, and idiosyncratic gardens and other outdoor constructions -- produced by people who have had little or no formal training in art and who produce (or at least began by producing) art without regard to the mainstream art world's recognition or marketplace.

These are people who make art for themselves or their immediate community, usually without recognizing themselves as artists, at least until some collector or expert comes along to inform that they are making art.

While the first use of the term "outsider" can't be specifically attributed to any one person, during the 1970s, interest in works of art by untrained artists began to grow. Collectors of this work started to call the artists "outsiders" because they were outside the mainstream of the American Art Community. Outsider Art is also known as Self-Taught Art, Art Brut and Visionary Art. The artists themselves are not trained in traditional art forms, which leaves them free to express themselves in the manner in which they choose.