Wilson's work examines the complex relationship between the artist/author and Outsider as hero within the text, stating quite emphatically, "Many great artists [authors, in his book] have none of the characteristics of the Outsider." This being the case, the imagined Outsider as hero is a projected personality known directly or indirectly to the author, a professional writer. This is a confusing relationship that does not occur in visual art. In visual art the Outsider is without doubt the artist who, unlike Wilson's Outsider - a literary giant - is an obscure artist regarded by many as technically inferior to the professional and as a consequence belittled.

click on image to enlarge

John Bourke: self-portrait (at the age of 21) mixed media on paper; photo/ Gerry Carew Hines

In 1972 Studio Vista published a seminal work by Roger Cardinal entitled Outsider Art . Cardinal's subject was Art Brut, a generic term invented by Jean Dubuffet in the mid-1940s to describe raw, untutored and singularly extraordinary art by cultural isolationists and the culturally isolated, many of whom were psychiatric patients. How much, if at all, Cardinal borrowed from Wilson is not recorded but Outsider Art was clearly intended to be an equivalent of Art Brut, not an umbrella under which a plethora of associated terms might congregate. Ever since, the term has caused confusion, opening the debate about what constitutes Outsider Art and what then might art by social and cultural outsiders be. Cardinal has sometimes found himself in a ridiculous position as he attempts to defend his own academic territory from those whom he considers might lessen his term's authority. ¹ He refuses to acknowledge that his term 'Outsider Art', and its resultant Outsider Artist, in tandem with the various magazines on the subject (e.g., Raw Vision ), has captured the popular (and romantic) imagination, lending a spirit of empowerment to those outsiders on the margins of society and art practice who create for themselves.

Cardinal's generation has perpetuated a demeaning and paternalistic language that hinges on the perceived standard of the professional artist's ability; anything less is 'naïve' and 'childlike'. Only now is this language being questioned, along with a review of how marginal art can be merged with the mainstream to bring about a homogenous and inclusive culture. The use of the word 'discovery' and the relationship between discoverers and those discovered is examined by Matthew Gale. ² This word, he writes, "conveys the action of one dominant party on the dominated 'other'." And continues,

Explicit within Gale's essay is the fact that the perceived naïve's art is often more valid than the professional's with regard to recording the social history of their own communities. Within the period of the twentieth century that Gale is examining, academic training, with its bias towards observation, encouraged the professional to paint a direct present reality whereas the naïve would (and still does) narrate past events for his/her social group to share. In this respect and given his/her standing within the community, the naïve needs no more to be 'discovered' than his/her assumed superior. The use of appropriate language to describe the art of the untutored remains unresolved. Terms like 'naïve' and 'outsider' are outmoded when considered as qualitative in respect of current trends in mainstream art practice, and they are all the more redundant within a postmodern pluralist society which must, in all conscience, promote inclusivity.

The most recent publication on the subject, Outsider Art, Spontaneous Alternatives by Colin Rhodes, rigorously examines the numerous strands and convolutions within the genre supporting Dubuffet's classification process ³ , endorsed by Cardinal, that locates the Outsider Artist at the top of an evolutionary tree. Rhodes asserts that

It is this essential difference, along with a use of impermanent media (household paint, biro pen, packaging and scrap) plus an often disturbing, antisocial inner vision, that helps to classify the true Outsider. Only he/she can produce Outsider Art and those myriad creative individuals on the margins (that is, outsiders) cannot. Beneath the Outsider, occupying their own branches are naïves, folk artists, and amateurs, all of whom can be easily distinguished within Ireland.

In looking for Outsiders within Irish art the researcher must cast the net wide and by so doing expect to find the above three distinct species, of whom the amateur is the most maligned. Often referred to disparagingly as 'Sunday Painters', this legion of artists tends generally to ape the professional in an attempt to make art that conforms to historical modes and the art market. Above all else the amateur wants to exhibit and sell his/her art in a display of parity with the professional counterpart. As a consequence, the amateur's art rarely distinguishes itself in terms of originality. However, the amateur artist sometimes becomes successful within his/her own right supporting the theory that practice and commitment results in well-crafted picture-making. Here the case of Joseph Quilty (1914-1995) is of interest. Quilty's art is often confused with that of an Outsider and indeed Tom Kenny's description ⁴ sums this up. "His style was unsophisticated, unspoilt, and free from the trammels of professionalism, tradition and formal training." Here four prerequisites are employed that confound Quilty's position as an Outsider. Quilty painted in a colourful, expressionistic style employing many abstract and decorative devices. He is neither naïve nor, to employ the aforementioned classification system, could he ever be labelled an Outsider. At his best Quilty was a highly accomplished amateur painter whose style represented his tangible world of Co. Clare.

The art of Robert B. Matthews (1895-1982) might too be confused as Outsider but unlike Quilty's painting it exhibits stylistic tendencies that lean towards the pure naïve. In a description of Matthews' painting for a summer exhibition in 1994 at the Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork, Peter Murray writes:

Like the majority of genuine naïves, Matthews' art is a reminiscence of his life in the American Navy suffused with images of his settled environment of Cobh. His pictures are recalled or imagined µscenes handled with the clumsiness of the untutored, a mannerism that, for many, lends the work its abiding charm and innocence - the hallmarks of naïve painting. What distinguishes the naïve from the amateur is the former's disregard for an improvement in his/her standard of ability. The naïve, more often than not, is contemptuous of criticism while holding on to the belief that his/her art is as good as that of any professional. Here the relationship between James Dixon and his mentor Derek Hill is of interest. ⁵

It may be completely insensitive of the researcher to expect that the naïve painter should sustain an arrested development and keep making art that is crudely drawn and painted. When West Cork fisherman, Nealie O'Sullivan began painting late in life his first scenes of Allihies were naïve but through time he abandoned this style and began to paint semi-abstract evocations of the sea that are trite and disingenuous but extremely popular commercially. His practice also includes small-scale kitsch stone carving and assemblages made from flotsam and jetsam that display nothing more than a quick eye for balance and harmony. They are too slight to be placed within the canon of Outsider Art and too 'folksy' to be distinctly naïve. History shows that artists like O'Sullivan, who quickly recognise the commercial potential of their work, have little sympathy with those who like to control the mechanisms of classification within the genre of Outsider Art. Dubuffet excommunicated Gaston Chaissac because he associated with "cultivated circles" and when Albert Louden became similarly integrated into mainstream culture through a one-man exhibition in the Serpentine Gallery in 1985 he was disqualified from being an Outsider Artist by Monika Kinley. ⁶ One man who managed to survive the fickleness of artworld semantics was Scottie Wilson, originally classified as a naïve and later championed as an Outsider by Jean Dubuffet and Victor Musgrave ⁷ . A key aspect of Wilson's art that classified him as a naïve, is his inherent mark-making with its resonances in eastern-European folk art, traceable through his Russian lineage.

What strikes the researcher of naïve and marginal art in Ireland is the long tradition of wood carving. This originates from a folk-art practice of making utilitarian objects, some of which were further decorated. Wood has always been accessible and easy to work with but we can only hazard a guess at when man may have first taken an interest in bog wood as a material. The uniqueness of bog wood not only lies in its connection to prehistory but also its anthropomorphic and zoomorphic qualities. With little effort semi-recognisable forms can be extracted from its gnarled and twisted grain. It is therefore a ready material for the naïve sculptor.

Mary Lynch-Keogh :bog oak figure (portrait of mother); photo the author

Mary Lynch Keogh, now 80 years of age, recalls her father whittling dollies with his penknife to amuse his children in the evenings. Although there are no survivors of his creative talent we might imagine that his dolls conformed to established patterns of his day, rendering them obvious examples of folk art. His daughter too began her carving habit with a penknife but soon graduated to a chisel and mallet, employed without the aid of a vice, gripping the piece in her lap while working. As a consequence her small figures, carved in various woods including bog wood, are poorly detailed and defy our idea of sculpture, yet their true value becomes apparent as soon as they are caressed in the hand. Not only do the shapes evoke memories of Mary's past but the texture and warmth of the wood unlock emotions inherent and profound. These objects take on totemic and religious significance and, in spite of their size, are powerful and compulsive. For the majority of bog-wood sculptors, most of whom are self-taught, the skill of working with this material lies in recognising the dormant form locked within the grain and slowly birthing it after a long gestation.

Billy O'Carroll, unlike Mary Lynch Keogh, had no urge to carve until the age of 55 after learning carpentry on building sites. He carves on a large scale using his chisel in an incisive, clean-cut manner, the marks creating precise details and patterning. He can trace his practice back 300 years through the Moran side of his family who came from Galway to settle in Gowran, Co. Kilkenny as wood carvers. O'Carroll talks openly about an external force guiding him as he carves, of being a medium and having an unworldly empathy for his material. All these factors, combined with his cultural isolation and poor education, indicate that he might be a typical Outsider Artist under criteria established by Jean Dubuffet and supported by Cardinal and Rhodes, but Billy O'Carroll's broad practice, that includes furniture-making and perpetuating rocking-horse production to a traditional pattern, along with his style and ethos, place him firmly in the folk-art tradition. Interestingly, his habit of painting only the eyes of his over-scaled carved heads reminds one of Stephan Balkenhol's Large Head, in the collection of The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA).

As explained none of the aforementioned Irish artists could be described as Outsider Artists under established guidelines. None belong to that society of, "Psychiatric patients, self-taught visionaries and mediums...at the heart of early definitions of Outsider Art." ⁸ None are really divorced from commercial interests having either sold their work or engaged in a business enterprise from it. And further all are easily classified as either amateur, naïve or folk artist. To find Outsider Artists who fulfil most accepted criteria the researcher must enter psychiatric hospitals where patients make art to relieve boredom or to fulfil an innermost urge, have no interest in commercial gain or publicity, and who, for the most part, have no experience of mainstream art. However, although a person may be medically certified as mentally ill and may be making art compulsively and intuitively, he/she may not be producing Outsider Art. Most such patients are naïves drawing and painting reminiscence works that map their own lives before institutionalised life imprisoned them. Occasionally exceptions arise who have a distinct vision and style.

James Finley : Quadmotorbike, 2000, felt-tip on paper,A4: Courtesy the author

The mechanical drawings of farm vehicles by James Finley at first glance are naïve, simplified representations, but their network of lines strive to communicate the inexplicable in the same way that entangled linear drawings by Dwight Macintosh ⁹ do.

And John Bourke's psychological portraits of androgenous men and Amazonian women transcend the realm of the naïve entering a nightmarish fantasy that is further complicated by colossal grand pianos, unplayable by mere humans. Dr. Leo Navratil established the Artists' House at Gugging psychiatric hospital near Vienna where mental patients could live and works as artists on their own terms. ¹⁰ The determination of Gugging finds an echo in St Kevin's in Cork where several extant wards have been devoted to a recreational and creative space in which patients can express themselves in a wide variety of materials. Empowered by William Frodé de la Forêt of Cork Community Artlink, they have discovered potentials that have lain dormant for all of their lives. John the Painter, verbally incoherent due to heavy medication, communicates visually on an impressive scale that contradicts his stature and suppressed energy. His paintings, uninhibited and joyously colourful, might be the envy of any Cobra artist. John fuses the naïve's characteristic of reminiscence with expressionistic verve, giving his art a competence and strength that is unusual in art by psychiatric patients. Without doubt he would conform to Outsider criteria but this seems irrelevant for he is, like any of the Gugging residents, an artist in his own right.

John Bourke: Piano ,mixed media on paper;photo/Gerry Carew-Hines

One man stands alone in Ireland, singled out by his social and creative stance. His art is uncompromisingly public and challenging as it endeavours to entertain those who might happen upon it. Moscow Joe McKinley of Carnlough, Co. Antrim, began his scrap assemblage environment after his wife left and he retired from his milk-delivery business. McKinley enthusiastically collaged his hallway from floor to ceiling before starting on his bedroom, even more intensely decorated with magazine cuttings, found objects, collected ephemera, and pictures of his own making. However, it is his outdoor expression that confronts the public. His small yard is crammed with found, reclaimed and personal objects that have either been added to or given signs which mythologise them. Other signs exist in their own right, carrying humorous anecdotes and messages. Occupying most of this space are two cars, also heavily collaged - one still driveable but only illegally. This type of personalised altar to the ego may have its origins in grottoes and religious shrines for it is a universal Outsider artform which is most common in the United States - a country where individual expression can achieve larger-than-life proportions. In smaller countries like Ireland people are more constrained, but Moscow Joe defies social inhibitions in his fight for free expression and his right to make people smile. This basic need sets him aside both socially and artistically. That he is an artist is not in doubt for he is an articulate communicator. He is neither naïve nor folk artist but a rare creator with his own vision - an Outsider by Wilson's definition and one who might too find sympathies in Cardinal and Rhodes.

To say that all art by social and cultural outsiders is Outsider Art is like saying all plein-air landscape painting is Impressionism. The genre, Art Brut/Outsider Art has become fixed with set criteria that classify it, and since its inception has become an integral part of modernism, so much so that its uninhibited freedom of expression has directly influenced many modern masters and helped establish an international style. There have been innumerable exhibitions mixing the art of outsiders with mainstream/professional artists but few public collections can boast two separate collections - Mainstream and Outsider. IMMA is one such and owes this distinction to the Musgrave/Kinley Collection of Outsider Art, on loan for 25 years. Currently an exhibition entitled Import (until March 25, 2001) successfully integrates Outsider works with contemporary pieces, further illustrating that this self-taught expression is an essential part of the language and aesthetic of modernism. I have tried throughout this essay to illustrate how the term Outsider Art is a misnomer and how its usage has confused the way we view the art made by people without tutelage or contact with the art world and its operatives. This picture may now be further confused and misinterpreted by some artists on the margins of Irish art who view IMMA's exhibiting policy as being sympathetic to their ambitions of inclusion, but IMMA's collection policy has not included examples of Irish naïve art or folk art. Further, it is interesting to reflect on whether IMMA would have amassed such a collection as that of Musgrave/Kinley on its own initiative. IMMA's collection does include Open Season, a work resulting from a community art project initiated by the museum's education department, and Dinner for One in Babylon by Stephen Walsh, a self-taught Irish artist working outside of the mainstream. Catherine Marshall, Senior Curator and Head of Collections, emphasises that a more inclusive approach to collecting policy is being addressed. As IMMA matures, with the support of its Board of Directors, it may tackle the issue of creating an educational resource containing examples of creativity by all members of society instead of investing in the fickleness of the international art market. It would say a lot for IMMA's confidence, and the confidence of Ireland, if a more democratic collecting strategy were brought to bear - a strategy that enabled the indigenous art-engaged public, and international tourist alike, to examine the complete range of creative experience and language that is practised within Ireland, a strategy that would include any of the aforementioned artists who have created their own expression and reflected on their own environment in their own terms.

link to images Moscow Joe McKinley

link to images John the Painter

Import , Irish Museum of Modern Art, until March 25, 2001

¹ Raw Vision, No 8 (Winter 1993/94) dealing with an exhibition of the Art of The Homeless in New York
² Matthew Gale, Artistry, Authenticity and the Work of James Dixon and Alfred Wallis, in Two Painters - Works by Alfred Wallis and James Dixon (catalogue), Irish Museum of Modern Art and Tate Gallery St Ives, 1999.
³ Dubuffet's Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland, contains the Neuve Invention, works by artists whose work would not fit within Dubuffet's strict criteria of Art Brut.
⁴ Introduction to catalogue Joseph Quilty, A Celebration, The Kenny Gallery, Galway, July 1999
⁵ Gale, op. cit.
⁶ John Windsor, Catch 22: The Case of Albert Louden, Raw Vision, No. 18, Spring 1997.
⁷ Outsiders (catalogue), preface by Victor Musgrave, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979.
⁸ Colin Rhodes, Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives, Thames & Hudson, 2000
⁹ Outsider Artist in the Musgrave/Kinley Collection of Outsider Art, currently on show in IMMA as part of Import.
¹⁰ Leo Navratil, Art Brut & Psychiatry, Raw Vision, No. 15, Summer 1996.

Peter Haining a mixed media artist and curator, is currently researching art made by people within the whole of Ireland who have no formal art training.