Set of Original Outsider Drawings by Jean-Guy Carisse (Ottawa, Canada)
“Those works created from solitude and from pure and authentic creative impulses—where the worries of competition, acclaim and social promotion do not interfere—are, because of these very facts, more precious than the productions of professions. After a certain familiarity with these flourishings of an exalted feverishness, lived so fully and so intensely by their authors, we cannot avoid the feeling that in relation to these works, cultural art in its entirety appears to be the game of a futile society, a fallacious parade.”
—Jean Dubuffet, On Outsider Art
Jean-Guy Carisse:
Works displayed at La Petite Mort include “Drawings of Transvestites, Freaks, and Confused Individuals,” August 22, 2007.
Artist Statement: QUEENS
” We dream of it… Glitz, Glamour, Good Times.
We strive for it… pleasure, prominence, even power.
And we ornament ourselves to play the part, look the part and be the part.
… But alas, the sands of time and the ravages of life’s cycle often puts our dreary pleasure garden through the wringer, often when we are unaware…
… And before you know it, we wind up in a desolate chamber with only our adornments that still can be physically worn but whose role in wearing them is less a requirement but more a reminder of what is, is actually what was.” Jean-Guy, 2008
Artists Without Resumes (2007)
Four of the Gallery’s artists suffer from debilitating mental illness. They do not have resumes, but have offered biographical details. Given the character and goals of La Petite Mort Gallery, their resume status is not believed to detract from their artistic merit, but, rather, to illustrate its integrity.
What is Outsider Art:
Outsider Art is art by self-taught or naïve art makers. Typically, those labeled as outsider artists have little or no contact with the mainstream art world or art institutions. In many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Often, outsider art illustrates extreme mental states, unconventional ideas, or elaborate fantasy worlds.
The term outsider art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut (French: [aʁ bʁyt], “raw art” or “rough art”), a label created by French artistJean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art by those on the outside of the established art scene, using as examples psychiatric hospital patients and children.
Outsider art has emerged as a successful art marketing category; an annual Outsider Art Fair has taken place in New York since 1993, and there are at least two regularly published journals dedicated to the subject. The term is sometimes misapplied as a catch-all marketing label for art created by people who are outside the mainstream “art world” or “art gallery system”, regardless of their circumstances or the content of their work. A more specific term, “outsider music“, was later adapted for musicians.