Skip to content | Accessibility Information

Hunt, A., 2022.

Minor painting: Outsiders and outliers

Output Type:Journal article
Publication:Journal of Contemporary Painting
Publisher:Intellect
ISBN/ISSN:2052-6695
URL:dx.doi.org/10.1386/jcp_00036_2
Volume/Issue:8 (1)
Pagination:pp. 3-29

<jats:p>The editorial surveys the current terrain of contemporary self-taught and outsider art. Using Deleuze and Guattari's <jats:italic>Towards a Minor Literature</jats:italic> to suggest a specific category of minor painting, the text discusses how museological discourse on outsider art that developed over the twentieth century has been transformed over the past decade by large museum exhibitions and smaller community organizations' activities. These include key examples such as the National Gallery of Art, Washington's exhibition <jats:italic>Outliers and American Vanguard Art</jats:italic> curated by Lynne Cooke, and White Columns's exemplary programme that supports visionary and self-taught artists in New York City. The text outlines how these examples alongside curatorial activism and reappraisal have attempted to recalibrate art history and provides an analysis of the inclusion of outsider and self-taught art in biennales such as Venice, quinquennials such as <jats:italic>Documenta</jats:italic> and small publicly funded spaces with a desire for equality and inclusion.</jats:p>