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| Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz alongside one of the many works on exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Great and Mighty Things, Outsider Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection. The show runs through June 9. |
Can anyone be an artist?
Anyone? Really?
Well, the truth is that you don't have to be named Van Gogh or Renoir or Michaelangelo or Picasso or Warhol to create memorable art.
And that's the point of a unique new exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
We had a wonderful time previewing Great and Mighty Things, Outsider Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection which opens tomorrow and runs through June 9 at the Museum.
As you can see from these photos, the collection is diverse and includes pieces in a variety of media.
Outsider art is art by self-taught artists who have had no formal training.
This exhibition reveals power of self-taught artistic talent, the drive of the human spirit to create, and the wonders of highly original inner worlds revealed. And this is why the Philadelphia Museum of Art is proud to debut the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection, a promised gift to the Museum of more than two hundred works by self-taught artists.
At this exhibition, you can discover the visual strength and original beauty of these works by twenty-seven untrained American artists, each with a moving personal story, many from disadvantaged, rural backgrounds far removed from the mainstream art world. This show surprises and challenges museum goers, forces examination of the conventional definition of the word “artist,” and shows that good art is good art regardless of the maker’s résumé.
At this exhibition, you can discover the visual strength and original beauty of these works by twenty-seven untrained American artists, each with a moving personal story, many from disadvantaged, rural backgrounds far removed from the mainstream art world. This show surprises and challenges museum goers, forces examination of the conventional definition of the word “artist,” and shows that good art is good art regardless of the maker’s résumé.
Visitors will see unforgettable works, dating from the 1930s to 2010, by passionate artists who made Not categorized by styles, movements, or trends, outsider art is art made by individuals who are driven to create by their own particular inner compulsions, which may be visionary, derived from memories, evangelical, or popular-culture inspired. It is almost always strongly influenced by local or regional cultures and often is made from found, homemade, or unusual materials.
The best outsiders produce work that is out of the ordinary, edgy, imaginative, or even obsessive-compulsive. Their creations are frequently raw or crude in execution but masterful in color choices and composition. Many of these self-taught artists create large-scale “environments,” some of which derive from the southern African American yard-art tradition.
Recognized as a specific field from the early twentieth century in Europe—at that time associated with the art of the mentally ill—and in America since the 1930s and 1940s, outsider art is now a global phenomenon, albeit a minor one within the full spectrum of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art. It occupies a position parallel to but not identical with mainstream modern and contemporary art.
The best outsiders produce work that is out of the ordinary, edgy, imaginative, or even obsessive-compulsive. Their creations are frequently raw or crude in execution but masterful in color choices and composition. Many of these self-taught artists create large-scale “environments,” some of which derive from the southern African American yard-art tradition.
Recognized as a specific field from the early twentieth century in Europe—at that time associated with the art of the mentally ill—and in America since the 1930s and 1940s, outsider art is now a global phenomenon, albeit a minor one within the full spectrum of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art. It occupies a position parallel to but not identical with mainstream modern and contemporary art.
Great and Mighty Things is a show to open your eyes to the world of art.
It will challenge the way you think about art and help you to look at creativity in new ways.
Above all, we think it will delight you, surprise you, reawaken your sense of wonder and strengthen your faith in the human condition.
Don't miss Great and Mighty Things -- and take the family along as well. This is a show for all ages!
All photos copyright 2013 by Dan Cirucci.
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