Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
Encyclopedia
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the understanding of and appreciation for intuitive and outsider art
through a program of education and exhibition. Since its founding in 1991, Intuit has emerged as an international leader in the field of outsider art. Intuit boasts a worldwide membership, a published magazine The Outsider, and a growing and respected permanent collection. Intuit is located at 756 N Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.
through education, exhibition, collecting and publishing. Intuit defines ‘outsider art’ as the work of artists who demonstrate little influence from the mainstream art world, and who instead are motivated by their unique personal vision. This definition includes art brut, non-traditional folk art, self-taught art, and visionary art.
), Kansas, Indiana, Wisconsin, and other sites in Illinois.
Several years after it’s founding, Intuit decided to expand its role to become a collecting organization. http://www.art.org/permanent-collection/index.htm Since 2002, the collection has grown to more than 1,100 works of art, including such self-taught artists as: Henry Darger
, Howard Finster
, Martin Ramirez
, Sister Gertrude Morgan
, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein
, Bill Traylor
, James Castle
, Scottie Wilson
, Nek Chand
, Minnie Evans
, Joseph Yoakum
, Justin McCarthy, Oswald Tschirtner
, P.M. Wentworth, Johann Hauser, Dwight Mackintosh, Mr. Imagination, William Hawkins, Wesley Willis
, Dr. Charles Smith, Lee Godie, and Chris Hipkiss http://www.chrishipkiss.org/. Other exhibitions have featured such exceptional items as tattoo flash, sock monkeys, objects made from Popsicle sticks, and bottle caps. The organization also began a nontraditional (intuitive) music series, and an annual outsider art fair, originally held in early October.
In 2008, Intuit dedicated the Henry Darger Room Collection http://www.art.org/collection/henry-darger/ in an effort to expand its on-site study center resources. The Henry Darger
Room Collection is an evocation of the living space from the small Chicago apartment in which the reclusive artist lived. The Henry Darger
Room Collection offers an intimate glimpse into the personal life of the reclusive artist.
Darger lived in a one-room apartment in Chicago’s Lincoln Park until 1973 when he retired to a nursing facility. In his small room—which doubled as his studio and home for close to 40 years—he worked on a large number of painted and collaged drawings that illustrated the story of the Vivian Girls, created volumes of writings, and collected hundreds of objects (shoes, eyeglasses, balls of string, etc.). The contrast between the intimate scale of the room and the staggering volume of drawings, illustrations, writings, and collections, conveys vital information about Darger’s existence and the work he created.
The goal of the permanent exhibit at Intuit is to create a resource that provides a window to Darger’s world. The installation symbolizes the stark contrasts that are so vividly portrayed in Darger’s vast and complex oeuvre. Experiencing Darger’s personal environment through the installation provides an important link to the man who struggled relentlessly throughout his life to give expression to the polarized spectrum of humanity. The archive and material represents a vital resource and the installation enhances the understanding and appreciation of the art of Henry Darger by providing artists, scholars, and the public access to a unique and innovative archive of study materials.
Architecture of Hope – the Treasures of Intuit; January 21 – May 14, 2011; curated by Roger Manley http://www.art.org/2011/01/architecture-of-hope-the-treasures-of-intuit/
http://www.art.org/2010/06/life-lines-the-drawings-of-charles-steffen/
The Treasure of Ulysses Davis: Sculpture from a Savannah Barbershop; a retrospective exhibition of works by Ulysses Davis; February 12- May 15, 2010
http://www.art.org/2010/02/the-treasure-of-ulysses-davis/
flash and circus banners; September 11, 2009 through January 9, 2010 http://www.art.org/2009/09/freaks-flash/
Culprits, Innocents & Outsiders: Heartland Visions; art by 7 self-taught artists including: William Hawkins, Elijah Pierce, Mary Borkowski, Mary Merrill, Morris Ben Newman, David Pond, and Ernest "Popeye" Reed; April 29 - August 29, 2009; for more information also see link to Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc. exhibition listing
http://www.tfaoi.org/aa/9aa/9aa5.htmhttp://chicago.timeout.com/articles/art-design/75133/culprits-innocents-and-outsiders-at-intuit-art-reviewhttp://www.art.org/2009/04/culprits-innocents-and-outsiders-heartland-visions/
The Picture Tells the Story: The Drawings of Joseph E. Yoakum; January 16 through January 9, 2010 http://www.art.org/2009/01/the-picture-tells-the-story-the-drawings-of-joseph-e-yoakum/
Sticks; focus on the common stick in art; January 16 - April 18, 2009 http://www.art.org/2009/01/sticks/
Chris Hipkiss: Drawings; April 23 - August 30, 2008 http://www.art.org/2008/04/chris-hipkiss-drawings/
Henry Darger Exhibition; January 18 - June 28, 2008 http://www.art.org/2008/01/henry-darger-exhibition/
I’ll Fly Away; featuring the Art of Albert Zahn; December 13, 2003 - February 28, 2004 http://www.art.org/2003/12/ill-fly-away-2/
Sam Doyle; November 9, 2001 - March 30, 2002 http://www.art.org/2001/11/sam-doyle/
Images in a Silent World: The Art of James Castle; January 19-March 15, 1997
The official publication of Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art is The Outsider magazine. The Outsider provides scholarly articles about and in-depth coverage of important discoveries in the field of outsider art, as well as news about Intuit's exhibits, programs and special events.http://www.art.org/theOutsiderMag/backIssue.htm It is estimated that the worldwide readership of The Outsider magazine exceeds 8,000.
Architecture of Hope: The Treasures of Intuit
Features an essay by curator, Roger Manley, Gregg Museum of Art & Design at North Carolina State University in collaboration with Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art; Introduction by Cleo Wilson, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art; soft-bound, 25 color illustrations, 32 pages, 2010
Finding Beauty: The Art of Lee Godie
Essay by Jessica Moss, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art; soft-bound, 20 color and 12 b/w illustrations, 28 pages, 2008
Yoakum
Essay by Mark Pascale, Art Institute of Chicago; soft-bound, 27 color illustrations, 24 pages, 2009
Illinois°N date=July 2009°W
Outsider Art
The term outsider art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut , a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art by insane-asylum inmates.While...
through a program of education and exhibition. Since its founding in 1991, Intuit has emerged as an international leader in the field of outsider art. Intuit boasts a worldwide membership, a published magazine The Outsider, and a growing and respected permanent collection. Intuit is located at 756 N Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.
Mission
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art promotes public awareness, understanding, and appreciation of intuitive and outsider artOutsider Art
The term outsider art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut , a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art by insane-asylum inmates.While...
through education, exhibition, collecting and publishing. Intuit defines ‘outsider art’ as the work of artists who demonstrate little influence from the mainstream art world, and who instead are motivated by their unique personal vision. This definition includes art brut, non-traditional folk art, self-taught art, and visionary art.
History
Early in 1991, discussions began in Chicago concerning the formation of a group dedicated to art by untrained artists – art often known as intuitive or outsider art. A group of artists, gallery owners, art collectors, business people, and arts patrons organized a public gathering attended by more than 80 people. The result was the founding of Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. Since that time, Intuit has grown steadily, boasting more than 600 members from the U.S. and abroad. The organization’s record presenting cutting-edge exhibitions and unique educational programs has led to its international reputation as a leader in the field of outsider art. Though its influence is recognized worldwide, Intuit’s Chicago roots reflect the important role the city has played as the home to many self-taught and outsider artists, and collectors. Intuit has helped foster a dramatic increase in collecting outsider art, as well as the popular interest in, and academic awareness of outsider art. Intuit has hosted more than 80 exhibitions, and scores of lectures, film screenings, art fairs, panel presentations, performances, and other programs. In 1997, Intuit presented Images in a Silent World: The Art of James Castle, the first major exhibition of the artist's works east of the Mississippi. Study tours sponsored by Intuit have led groups to visit art environments, artists, private collections, museums, and galleries in locations including: Europe, New Mexico, Texas (The Orange ShowThe Orange Show
Jeff McKissack, a mail carrier in Houston, Texas, transformed a small suburban lot near his wood frame house into The Orange Show in honor of his favorite fruit...
), Kansas, Indiana, Wisconsin, and other sites in Illinois.
Several years after it’s founding, Intuit decided to expand its role to become a collecting organization. http://www.art.org/permanent-collection/index.htm Since 2002, the collection has grown to more than 1,100 works of art, including such self-taught artists as: Henry Darger
Henry Darger
Henry Joseph Darger, Jr. was a reclusive American writer and artist who worked as a custodian in Chicago, Illinois...
, Howard Finster
Howard Finster
Howard Finster was an American artist and Baptist reverend from Georgia. He claimed to be inspired by God to spread the gospel through the environment of Paradise Garden and over 46,000 pieces of art. His creations overlap folk art, outsider art, naïve art, and visionary art...
, Martin Ramirez
Martin Ramirez
Martín Ramírez was a self-taught artist who spent most of his adult life institutionalized in California mental hospitals, diagnosed as a catatonic schizophrenic.-Biography:He was born in 1895....
, Sister Gertrude Morgan
Gertrude Morgan
Sister Gertrude Morgan was a preacher, missionary, artist, musician, and poet who worked in New Orleans in the 1960s and '70s, notable primarily for her folk art....
, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein
Eugene Von Bruenchenhein
Eugene Von Bruenchenhein was an American outsider artist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.His versatile body of work included over a thousand colorful apocalyptic landscape paintings; hundreds of sculptures made from chicken bones, ceramic and cast cement; pin-up style photos of his wife, Marie; plus...
, Bill Traylor
Bill Traylor
William "Bill" Traylor was a self-taught artist born into slavery on a plantation belonging to George Hartwell Traylor near Benton, in Lowndes County, Alabama. After emancipation, his family continued to farm on the plantation until the 1930s...
, James Castle
James Charles Castle
James Charles Castle was an American artist born in Garden Valley, Idaho. Although Castle did not know about the art world outside of his small community, his work ran parallel to the development of 20th Century art history. His works have been collected by major institutions...
, Scottie Wilson
Scottie Wilson
Scottie Wilson , born Louis Freeman, was a Scottish outsider artist known particularly for his highly detailed style. Starting his artistic career at the age of 44, his work was admired and collected by the likes of Jean Dubuffet and Pablo Picasso and is generally accepted to be in the forefront...
, Nek Chand
Nek Chand
Nek Chand Saini is an Indian self-taught artist, famous for building the Rock Garden of Chandigarh, an eighteen acre sculpture garden in the city of Chandigarh, India....
, Minnie Evans
Minnie Evans
Minnie Evans was an African-American folk artist known for her colorful drawings primarily executed in crayon.- Life :...
, Joseph Yoakum
Joseph Yoakum
Joseph Elmer Yoakum was a self-taught artist of African-American and Native American descent who drew landscapes in a unique and highly individual style. He was 76 when he started to record his memories in the form of imaginary landscapes, and he produced over 2000 drawings during the last decade...
, Justin McCarthy, Oswald Tschirtner
Oswald Tschirtner
Oswald Tschirtner was a schizophrenic artist from Austria with the "pseudonym" of O.T.- Life :...
, P.M. Wentworth, Johann Hauser, Dwight Mackintosh, Mr. Imagination, William Hawkins, Wesley Willis
Wesley Willis
Wesley Willis was a musician and artist from Chicago. A diagnosed chronic schizophrenic, he gained an enormous cult following in the 1990s after releasing several hundred songs of simple but unique music, with emphasis on his humorous, bizarre, and frequently obscene lyrics...
, Dr. Charles Smith, Lee Godie, and Chris Hipkiss http://www.chrishipkiss.org/. Other exhibitions have featured such exceptional items as tattoo flash, sock monkeys, objects made from Popsicle sticks, and bottle caps. The organization also began a nontraditional (intuitive) music series, and an annual outsider art fair, originally held in early October.
In 2008, Intuit dedicated the Henry Darger Room Collection http://www.art.org/collection/henry-darger/ in an effort to expand its on-site study center resources. The Henry Darger
Henry Darger
Henry Joseph Darger, Jr. was a reclusive American writer and artist who worked as a custodian in Chicago, Illinois...
Room Collection is an evocation of the living space from the small Chicago apartment in which the reclusive artist lived. The Henry Darger
Henry Darger
Henry Joseph Darger, Jr. was a reclusive American writer and artist who worked as a custodian in Chicago, Illinois...
Room Collection offers an intimate glimpse into the personal life of the reclusive artist.
Henry Darger Room Collection
In spring 2000, Intuit took possession of the contents of artist Henry Darger’s living and working space, which was located at 851 Webster Street in Chicago. Intuit’s Henry Darger Room Collection http://www.art.org/collection/henry-darger/ includes tracings, source materials and clippings from newspapers, magazines, comic books, cartoons, children’s books, coloring books, personal documents; as well as architectural elements, fixtures, and furnishings from Darger’s actual residence.Darger lived in a one-room apartment in Chicago’s Lincoln Park until 1973 when he retired to a nursing facility. In his small room—which doubled as his studio and home for close to 40 years—he worked on a large number of painted and collaged drawings that illustrated the story of the Vivian Girls, created volumes of writings, and collected hundreds of objects (shoes, eyeglasses, balls of string, etc.). The contrast between the intimate scale of the room and the staggering volume of drawings, illustrations, writings, and collections, conveys vital information about Darger’s existence and the work he created.
The goal of the permanent exhibit at Intuit is to create a resource that provides a window to Darger’s world. The installation symbolizes the stark contrasts that are so vividly portrayed in Darger’s vast and complex oeuvre. Experiencing Darger’s personal environment through the installation provides an important link to the man who struggled relentlessly throughout his life to give expression to the polarized spectrum of humanity. The archive and material represents a vital resource and the installation enhances the understanding and appreciation of the art of Henry Darger by providing artists, scholars, and the public access to a unique and innovative archive of study materials.
2011
Eugene Von Bruenchenhein: From the Wand of the Genii; September 16, 2011 - January 14, 2012 http://www.art.org/2011/06/eugene-von-bruenchenhein-from-the-wand-of-the-genii/Architecture of Hope – the Treasures of Intuit; January 21 – May 14, 2011; curated by Roger Manley http://www.art.org/2011/01/architecture-of-hope-the-treasures-of-intuit/
2010
Life Lines: The Drawings of Charles Steffen; an exhibition of later works by the Illinois artist, drawn from the period 1989-1994; June 4-August 28, 2010http://www.art.org/2010/06/life-lines-the-drawings-of-charles-steffen/
The Treasure of Ulysses Davis: Sculpture from a Savannah Barbershop; a retrospective exhibition of works by Ulysses Davis; February 12- May 15, 2010
http://www.art.org/2010/02/the-treasure-of-ulysses-davis/
2009
Freaks & Flash; featuring the art of tattooTattoo
A tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...
flash and circus banners; September 11, 2009 through January 9, 2010 http://www.art.org/2009/09/freaks-flash/
Culprits, Innocents & Outsiders: Heartland Visions; art by 7 self-taught artists including: William Hawkins, Elijah Pierce, Mary Borkowski, Mary Merrill, Morris Ben Newman, David Pond, and Ernest "Popeye" Reed; April 29 - August 29, 2009; for more information also see link to Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc. exhibition listing
http://www.tfaoi.org/aa/9aa/9aa5.htmhttp://chicago.timeout.com/articles/art-design/75133/culprits-innocents-and-outsiders-at-intuit-art-reviewhttp://www.art.org/2009/04/culprits-innocents-and-outsiders-heartland-visions/
The Picture Tells the Story: The Drawings of Joseph E. Yoakum; January 16 through January 9, 2010 http://www.art.org/2009/01/the-picture-tells-the-story-the-drawings-of-joseph-e-yoakum/
Sticks; focus on the common stick in art; January 16 - April 18, 2009 http://www.art.org/2009/01/sticks/
2008
Finding Beauty: The Art of Lee Godie; September 12, 2008 - January 3, 2009 http://www.art.org/2008/09/finding-beauty-the-art-of-lee-godie/Chris Hipkiss: Drawings; April 23 - August 30, 2008 http://www.art.org/2008/04/chris-hipkiss-drawings/
Henry Darger Exhibition; January 18 - June 28, 2008 http://www.art.org/2008/01/henry-darger-exhibition/
Other Notable Exhibitions
Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan; February 11 - May 28, 2005 http://www.art.org/2005/02/tools-of-her-ministry-the-art-of-sister-gertrude-morgan/I’ll Fly Away; featuring the Art of Albert Zahn; December 13, 2003 - February 28, 2004 http://www.art.org/2003/12/ill-fly-away-2/
Sam Doyle; November 9, 2001 - March 30, 2002 http://www.art.org/2001/11/sam-doyle/
Images in a Silent World: The Art of James Castle; January 19-March 15, 1997
Publications
The Outsider http://www.art.org/publications-store/the-outsider/The official publication of Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art is The Outsider magazine. The Outsider provides scholarly articles about and in-depth coverage of important discoveries in the field of outsider art, as well as news about Intuit's exhibits, programs and special events.http://www.art.org/theOutsiderMag/backIssue.htm It is estimated that the worldwide readership of The Outsider magazine exceeds 8,000.
Exhibition Catalogues
In addition to its magazine,The Outsider, Intuit periodically publishes exhibition catalogues which can be obtained through contacting the organization. Among these include:Architecture of Hope: The Treasures of Intuit
Features an essay by curator, Roger Manley, Gregg Museum of Art & Design at North Carolina State University in collaboration with Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art; Introduction by Cleo Wilson, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art; soft-bound, 25 color illustrations, 32 pages, 2010
Finding Beauty: The Art of Lee Godie
Essay by Jessica Moss, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art; soft-bound, 20 color and 12 b/w illustrations, 28 pages, 2008
Yoakum
Essay by Mark Pascale, Art Institute of Chicago; soft-bound, 27 color illustrations, 24 pages, 2009
External links
- Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art (Chicago) Official site
Illinois°N date=July 2009°W