Examining if Outsider Art Can Exist In The Internet AgeLaura Astorian, EdS

Kennesaw State University

The definition of “outsider art” is a compilation of various

classifications of artistic output. Art brut, folk art, and self-

taught art alike require a separation from the mainstream. What

defines these artists? Holger Cahill, the early 20th century art

collector and historian of folk art, believed that these so-

called “primitive artists” were men of little training, that:

... [t]heir expression is primitive in the sense that it isthe sincere, unaffected and childlike expression of men and womenwho had little training or book learning in art, and who did noteven know that they were producing art.1

These “accidental artists” were naive, untrained, and

classified as outside the mainstream. They obviously had learned

to create their handiwork somewhere, though not through outside

influences. These artists, then, are self-taught. Separated from

the “Academy” of accepted artistic techniques and canon, they

utilized their identity and personal stories in creating

expressions of their ideas. As outsiders, the values of their

works are often tied to their biographies, since that is what

1 Cahill, Holger. "Folk Art: Its place in the American Tradition."Parnassus. no. 3 (1932): 1-4.

gives rise to the motivation to create their pieces. “Life

stories infuse the meaning of the work,”2 according to Gary Fine.

That very purity and lack of training is what makes the piece

significant, regardless of how insignificant the artist himself

might be as far as society is concerned. He or she may not have

much value in society, but their work sets the art world abuzz.

Being separate from mainstream culture and the referencing

of that separation is another hallmark of outsider art.3 If a

piece of art is to be classified as outsider, the artists’

stories and the origin of the art must be taken into

consideration – if it is to be classified as art at all. While

most artists are not separate from all culture - that is next to

impossible - the artists themselves must be either on the fringes

of what is deemed “American culture” or part of a marginalized or

maligned social group. These people and their works “belong to

our own cultural and art-historical context”4 while at the same

time they are distinctly not a part of what other members of that

2 Fine, Gary. "Crafting Authenticity: The Validation of Identity in Self-Taught Art." Theory and Society. no. 2 (2003): 153-180.3 David Davies, "On the Very Idea of 'Outsider Art'," British Journal of Aesthetics, 49, no. 1 (2009): 25-41,4 Ibid.

cultural group consider “mainstream.” Social isolation is a plus;

it reinforces the individual artists’ originality and allows the

artists to be creative outside of other influences, according to

Jean Dubuffet. Dubuffet determined his qualifications for Art

Brut artists in the late 19th century. The world has changed

significantly since then; even patients in mental care facilities

have contact with the outside world. Dubuffet’s Art Brut is a

definition frozen in time, a relic from an age where wide social

connectivity was difficult for the average individual and next to

impossible for the psychiatric patients that Dubuffet studied.

Is the classification of “outsider art” also a relic? In his

definition of what “outsider art” is, Roger Cardinal states that

“the art of even the most doggedly self-reliant creator is likely

to include allusions to the ambient culture, reflecting the

impact of an era and an environment upon the individual

consciousness.”5 Cardinal introduced this term in his book Outsider

Art in 1972, when interconnectivity between urban people was

becoming stronger, while those in some rural areas still lived in

comparable isolation. Cardinal’s definition can be applied to

5 Thompson, Jon. 2006. Inner Worlds Outside. Dublin: Irish Museum of Modern Art.: 15-27.

artists and individuals before his creation of the term;

obviously it can be applied to artists who created works after

1972 as well.

Today it is increasingly difficult to find people who one

could consider an outsider in the truest sense of Cardinal’s

definition. According to the Pew Internet Project’s latest

research, the spread of technology has been keeping people in

touch with cultures both their own and foreign. Ninety-one

percent of American adults own a cell phone, and 56% of American

adults own a smartphone. 63% of cell phone owners use their

phones to access the Internet. At least 58% have access to a

desktop computer, while 61% have access to a laptop.6 A full 70%

of Americans have access at home to broadband Internet, though

those people are mostly white, college-educated suburbanites.7

Overall, just 15% of American adults do not use the Internet,

with seven percent of those people claiming lack of accessibility

6 Brenner, Joanna. Pew Research Center , "Pew Internet: Mobile." Last modifiedSeptember 18, 2013. Accessed November 21, 2013. http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/February/Pew-Internet-Mobile.aspx.7 Zickuhr, Kathyrn. Pew Research Center , "Home Broadband 2013." Last modifiedAugust 26, 2013. Accessed November 21, 2013. http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Broadband.aspx.

or availability as the reason why.8 The Internet is not

universal, but on-line access is moving in that direction.

Bruce New, an artist from Burnside, Kentucky, is not a

traditional outsider artist according to Cardinal’s definition.

He is white, he is educated (though he dropped out of high school

at age 18), and he has access to the Internet. He is not isolated

from culture in the least. Fine’s questioning of “how the

identity of the self-taught artist affects the appreciation of

their creative expressions”9 is a key part of the examination of

New’s artwork and the classification of it as outsider art. New,

in an email to the author, believes that labels for himself and

his work are not necessary, but quantifies that with an assertion

that being self-taught makes you an outsider: “I do not think

much of titles or labels. I have always thought of myself as a

crafts person. I just make things. I think if you are self taught

[sic] you naturally fall into the ‘outsider’ category.”10 New

8 Zickuhr, Kathyrn. Pew Research Center , "Who's Not Online and Why?." Last modified September 26, 2013. Accessed November 21, 2013. http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Broadband.aspx.9 Fine, Gary. "Crafting Authenticity: The Validation of Identity in Self-Taught Art." Theory and Society. no. 2 (2003): 153-180.10 New, Bruce (Outsider Artist), interview by Laura Astorian, E-mail November 12, 2013.

does not label himself, though he paradoxically is accepting of

categorization. He, as Fine would argue, recognizes the

“authenticity of difference” while believing that the outright

stating of that difference is unnecessary; it is implied.

That New is from and lives in Kentucky and is a self-

taught artist is doubly intriguing when it is applied to Fine’s

statement that “[s]elf taught art has been defined as ‘one of the

last frontiers of twentieth-century American art,’ giving it

cachet within a culture in which the image of frontier has

enormous cultural resonance.”11 Kentucky was one of the first

great American frontiers shortly after the American Revolution,

with settlers from Virginia pushing westward into the nation’s

eventual 15th state. Kentucky is still often considered a rural

state. The fact that the cities of Louisville and Paducah have

large populations and metro areas has done little to dispel that

assumption. Artists from Kentucky, therefore, may more easily

come by the label of “outsider” due to the rural assumption and

stereotypes that exist regarding the state. Fellow Kentuckian

Edgar Tolson, from Camptown, gained a wide reputation as a folk

11 Ibid.

art sculptor in the 1960s. Discovered at the first Kentucky Guild

of Artists and Craftsmen’s spring fair, Tolson’s wooden carvings

and later Tolson himself were taken to the Smithsonian

Institution.12 Tolson was invited to demonstrate his carving to

guests, converting what was a normal activity for a rural

Kentuckian to a curiosity. Tolson’s fame grew by word of mouth

among collectors, and the tradition of oral storytelling for

recording history added to his backstory, giving his carvings

cachet. New uses the 21st century’s equivalent of oral history to

add to his backstory and to spread the word about his artwork.

New uses the Internet, specifically sites such as Facebook,

Blogger, and Tumblr.

As Lynne Adele explains in her Raw Vision article on New, his

work “shares an affinity with the ancient and the primordial, yet

are decidedly modern… They’re inspired by romantic love, yet are

hard edged and mechanical.”13 The characteristics that New’s work

share with artists such as Picasso is hard to ignore. New began

12 Ardery, Julia S. 1996. "How Edgar Tolson made it: Oral sources and folk art's success." Oral History Review 23, no. 2: 1. America: History and Life with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed November 22, 2013).13 Adele, Lynne. "The Transcendent Power of Love." Raw Vision. no. 77 (2013): 30-37.

creating his artwork when he was in his 20s, and his influence

did not come from pictures of Picasso’s work that he saw on-line.

Instead they came from a large library and a love of reading.

“New is anything but a naïve artist – he’s well read and well

versed on art; he cites Klee, Chagall, and Picasso among his

early influences…”14 The Internet did not play a role in

acquiring influences for New personally. Instead it has become an

avenue for spreading his art.

New’s work is easily accessible both in how it is shared on-

line and in the motifs and recurring themes that he presents. His

art is methodical and the geometric influences of Cubist artists

are displayed in the sharp geometric lines that New utilizes. It

may be surprising for some to see work with such a mechanical

influence come from an artist who has his roots in Kentucky,

considering the past history of “outsider artists” in the South.

New does not work with found objects; instead he uses

“streamlined, geometric forms, some with dangerous looking,

razor-sharp appendages.”15 They are not a string of narrative

pieces; instead they are individual works. The source for the

14 Ibid.15 Ibid.

meanings behind these is anything but mechanical. When asked by

the author about his influences, New replied:

My wife's name is Robin. The birds and allusions to flight are all symbolic of her. My birth year is 1970, hers is 1975, those numbers are often repeated. The male figures often have the letter R between their eyes to symbolize thinking of her.16

The paintings are an interesting contrast in love and the

representation of it. His wife is a constant presence in every

painting, through the birds and through “totems and arrows,

referring to her Native American (Cherokee) ancestry.”17 New

incorporates other symbolic aspects into his artwork – hearts;

trees; flowers; the anchor, which represents hope; and the hand

representing creativity.18 New also includes the occasional skull

as a reminder that all of this happiness is temporary. While the

final output may look mechanical and organized, the creation of

the art is a process that is anything but mechanical. After

trying many different methods, such as painting and photomontages

16 New, Bruce (Outsider Artist), interview by Laura Astorian, E-mail November 12, 2013.17 Ibid18 Ibid

he settled on his preferred method of both drawing and creating a

collage:

The method developed itself through making work. I start out by drawing for several days. Faces, skulls, fish, birds, suns, moons, etc.. [sic] I cut everything out and reassemble it into the final compositions that you see. I then glue everything down. The final part I go in with a penand do all the little parts that tie the pieces together. Borders, halos, dotting, etc..[sic]19

The creation of his work is itself a labor of love; his

affection for his wife is clear in his pieces when the viewer

understands the back-story, New’s influences, his symbolism, and

his method. His wife is ever-present in his works, as is a

realization that despite the fact that their time together is

wonderful, it – like life itself – must eventually end. However,

New may not necessarily mean his work to be communal despite the

very human emotion behind it. His work is “an attempt to document

[his] existence, to leave a visual record of [his] thoughts,

ideas, and fantasies.”20 His work is, as Stacy Hollander says, an

example of “the persistence of the individual” identified with

“creative impulses through a process that developed outside of

19 New, Bruce (Outsider Artist), interview by Laura Astorian, E-mail November 12, 2013.20 Ibid

the artworld.”21 His impulses are outside of the established

“artworld” due to his status as an “outsider” while his

influences come from within, and his purpose comes from within

himself as well. Whether or not the consumer of his art

understands his full message depends on that person’s knowledge

of New and his artistic intentions. The consumer can determine

his own messages from viewing New’s pieces, but in that case the

artist’s intentions remain private despite his very public

showcase.

For newer artists who have “come of age” in the Internet

era, it is not difficult to substitute “Internet” for “a large

library” in terms of where influences can be found With the ease

of accessibility that public libraries and then later the

Internet has brought people, the concept of an “outsider artist”

being shut off from influences is difficult to apply: “access to

technology has rendered the notion of the truly naïve artist all

but obsolete.”22

21 Hollander, Stacy. "Self-Taught Artists of the 20th Century,"Folk Art, 23, no. 1 (1998): 46.

22 Ibid

It has become second nature in our society for people to

turn to the Internet when opinions, artwork, or writing needs to

be shared. A cursory search is capable of bringing up the artwork

of the great masters, once not viewable outside of museums or

textbooks, as well as outsider artists who never imagined such

exposure when they created their work forty years ago. When asked

by the author why he utilizes the Internet so frequently, and if

it makes it difficult for him to be considered an “outsider,” New

responded:

I never gave it much thought. I was working making art full time. The internet [sic] provided free forums to post and upload pictures of what I was doing. I found like minded[sic]individuals who were doing the same thing. An online community developed.23

New has utilized Facebook

(https://www.facebook.com/bruce.new), Blogger

(http://www.brucenew.blogspot.com/), and Tumblr.

(http://brucenew.tumblr.com/) as a means to share his works with

those outside of his community. While galleries are no longer

necessary to show an artist’s work, New has had engagements at

23 New, Bruce (Outsider Artist), interview by Laura Astorian, E-mail November 12, 2013.

Outsiders Art And Collectibles in Durham, North Carolina and 71

Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as multiple showings in his

home state. His art is most widely disseminated through his

multiple online forums, where it has gained a following.

The use of the Internet has allowed New to share his work

directly with the average art consumer. While being “in the know”

might help a person find his work more easily, it’s not

necessary. All someone needs is to see a picture shared on

Facebook or re-blogged on Tumblr. Fine believes that “outsider

artists” should not be involved with shaping their careers,24 but

New is actively involved through the sharing of his work. He

posts a new painting on Tumblr, and lets things go from there. A

jaded person who may not fully understand social media might

assume that people post on these sites to show off their talents,

that what people post on these sites is a way of marketing

themselves. They are not necessarily “driven to be more

marketable” by social media. They are still “creating from the

heart”25 but they are doing it for a limitless audience. Over a

24 Fine, Gary. "Crafting Authenticity: The Validation of Identity in Self-Taught Art." Theory and Society. no. 2 (2003): 153-180.25 Ibid.

billion people have Facebook accounts worldwide, and 200 million

people have Twitter accounts.26 “As part of human communication,

social media content often conveys information about the author’s

emotional state, his or her judgment or evaluation of a certain

person or topic,

or the intended emotional communication”27 according to research

from Stefan Stieglitz and Linh Dang-Xuan. It is a natural

progression from this to someone who is an artist sharing their

form of emotional communication. Just as Southern “outsider

artists” wished to spread their interpretations of Scriptures

through roadside signs and gardens, modern Southern “outsider

artists” such as New are using the modern equivalent.

This raises a question that has been asked in the past: does

the adoption of new mediums of broadcast change the perception of

an artist’s work as outsider? Just as new technology in the 1930s

and 1940s both “encouraged the popularization of southern music”

26 Stieglitz, Stefan, and Linh Dang-Xuan. "Emotions and Information Diffusion in Social Media-Sentiment of Microblogs and Sharing Behavior." Journal Of Management Information Systems 29, no. 4 (Spring2013 2013): 217-248. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed November 27, 2013).

27 Ibid.

and gave entertainers Southern folk culture to draw from,28 new

technology today is bringing Southern artists and their work to a

distinctly wider audience. By doing that, both seventy years ago

and today, there is a risk of the artists losing their outsider

cachet. Publicizing your artwork through social media is not the

same thing a Howard Finster illustrating a Talking Heads album

cover or appearing on The Tonight Show, but the outcome of both is

similar. Instead of mass media picking up on aspects of Southern

“outsider art” and turning it into a desired part of mainstream

culture, the artists themselves are taking charge of getting

their message out there to a wider audience.

Social media and the Internet are not the first step toward

destroying the old ideas of outsider artists. The rise of mass

media and popular culture in the 1930s and 1940s, coupled with

growing library systems full of resources began to chip away at

the idea of anyone being a true social outcast. It is trendy

today to blame social media and the Internet as the beginning of

all of society’s changes – see the derision of the Millennial

28 Crown, Carol, and Charles Russell, Sacred and Profane: Voice and Vision in Southern Self-taught Art, (Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2007), 4-20.

generation – but every decade has a new technology that further

removes society from the idea of isolation. Even the humble

telegraph, introduced to the public in its electric form in 1848,

was known as "the great annihilator of time and space." While it

could be argued that Finster only desired to spread his art and

New just desires more people to see his creations, the display of

their artwork on a wider scale could be the beginning of the end

of the “outsider movement.”

Has the concept of “outsider art” shifted to an “outsider

style?” New’s motifs are very repetitive, almost obsessive, which

follows in the footsteps of countless “outsider artists” before

him. His obsessive motifs are not the repetitive workings of an

Art Brut mental patient; New is not ill. His motifs are how he

chooses to represent love, beauty, and the fleeting nature of

life. It lacks the jarring nature of many obsessives’ art,

possibly because so much of the art of the Art Brut obsessives

comes from the tortured place of mental illness. His paintings

are also not the repetitive warnings such William C. Rice and his

Cross Garden, or the repeated Biblical messages of Prophet

William J. Blackmon. There’s no scriptural influence on New’s

work. It is focused on the love between the artist and his wife;

it is humanist.

The style of “outsider artists,” regardless of if they are

genuinely outside of the mainstream or not, has been not only

adopted by the mainstream, it has become the mainstream.

Repetitive works, works with a “message” that are part of a

series, artistic environments, and found object sculptures are

all easily adoptable by people who want to create art in the

“outsider style.” A flip through the pages of a book on the

subject will give an artist ample inspiration to create as the

“outsiders” do, much like an outsider seeing a painting by a

master could influence their art. After all, as Sarah Boxer puts

it, “[o]utsider artists… are insiders now.”29 Mainstream exposure

to various artists of every outsider discipline has done to the

art what mainstream exposure to music did to the countercultural

rock and roll of the 1960s. Many people are familiar with who

Frank Zappa is regardless of if they listen to his music, much

like many people are familiar with the artwork of Henry Darger

regardless of if they’ve seen many of his pieces or read his

29 Boxer, Sarah. "Out is the New In." The Atlantic, September 2013, 34-37.

writing. Whether it is through radio play or Internet clicks,

what was once outside is now in. The idea behind being

counterculture or outsider still remains, but it’s been turned

into a genre more than a reality. It is more a means of

describing the influences behind art than the art itself.

This is the direction that “outsider art” has moved in. It

has been moving in that direction for decades, and the use of

social media and the Internet by artists such as Bruce New

solidifies that shift. New’s art is clearly in an “outsider

style,” and he fits into some of the outsider characteristics,

but it is difficult to call his work traditional “outsider art.”

Is it mainstream art? Not exactly, but just by virtue of not

being mainstream it is not outsider. Is there a between? If the

definition of “outsider art” is shifted to encompass everyone not

“insider,” then there is not. But if the idea of “outsider art”

is eliminated all together, or just adapted to include people who

fit into the ideas of people removed from the greater culture,

then yes, there is a between. What is that between called? Does

it need a label, or does calling it art just say it all?

Bibliography

Adele, Lynne. "The Transcendent Power of Love." Raw Vision. no. 77 (2013): 30-37.

Ardery, Julia S. 1996. "How Edgar Tolson made it: Oral sources and folk art's success." Oral History Review 23, no. 2: 1. America:History and Life with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed November 22, 2013).

Boxer, Sarah. "Out is the New In." The Atlantic, September 2013, 34-37.

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Cahill, Holger. "Folk Art: Its place in the American Tradition." Parnassus. no. 3 (1932): 1-4.

Crown, Carol, and Charles Russell, Sacred and Profane: Voice and Vision in Southern Self-taught Art, (Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2007), 4-20.

David Davies, "On the Very Idea of 'Outsider Art'," British Journal of Aesthetics, 49, no. 1 (2009): 25-41.

Fine, Gary. "Crafting Authenticity: The Validation of Identity in Self-Taught Art." Theory and Society. no. 2 (2003): 153-180.

Hollander, Stacy. "Self-Taught Artists of the 20th Century," Folk Art, 23, no. 1 (1998): 46.

New, Bruce (Outsider Artist), interview by Laura Astorian, E-mailNovember 12, 2013.

New, Bruce. Bruce New (blog), http://www.brucenew.blogspot.com/ (accessed November 27, 2013).

Stieglitz, Stefan, and Linh Dang-Xuan. "Emotions and Information Diffusion in Social Media-Sentiment of Microblogs and Sharing Behavior." Journal Of Management Information Systems 29, no. 4 (Spring2013 2013): 217-248. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed November 27, 2013).

Thompson, Jon. 2006. Inner Worlds Outside. Dublin: Irish Museum of Modern Art.: 15-27.

Zickuhr, Kathyrn. Pew Research Center , "Home Broadband 2013." Last modified August 26, 2013. Accessed November 21, 2013. http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Broadband.aspx.

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Bruce New, Untitled, 2013

Bruce New, Untitled, 2013

Bruce New, The Muse Draws A Circle In The Moonlight, 2013

Bruce New, The Moon Is Only A Mirror, The Night Is Only A Dream, 2013

Bruce New, Visions Are Like Diamonds When Your Dreams Become Free, 2013