What is a self-taught genius? During the post-Revolutionary era in the newly formed United States this characterization took on profound dimensions that were pivotal to the development of a start-up nation conceived on an experimental model: all of the nation's citizens were self-taught Americans. Self-Taught Genius, comprising more than one hundred works of art from the collection of the American Folk Art Museum, considers the changing implications of "self-taught" in the United States, from a deeply entrenched and widespread culture of self-education in the early national period to its usage today to describe artists working outside the art historical canon. The exhibition frames the continuum of American folk art through the concept of "self-taught" genius," an enduring term that, like the artworks themselves, has changed dramatically over time: the early American folk art we so admire today was made by the self-taught artists of the past. Art history has long been challenged by the role of self-taught artists. In the modern era these individuals, who defy our understanding of what is "normal," have yet managed establish lively artistic traditions and influence younger generations of artists. Self-taught artists are not perceived as threats to American cultural values but rather as guardians of those basic national values. Their art, past and present, blurs frontiers between disciplines, makes definitions look constricted, and forces us to reconsider our assumptions about authoritative systems.

Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum

Stacy C. Hollander

Valérie Rousseau

Arts & Photography

American Folk Art Museum

Most self-taught artists, including those who have shaped art environments and yard shows can be perceived as performance artists. Their work is infused with daily rituals, public actions, gestures, and enactments, defining a lifelong artistic practice for which the curtain never comes down. This volume documents and contextualizes the work of twenty-seven artists from around the world and active from the late nineteenth century to the present. Beyond paintings and sculpture, featured artworks include ceremonial clothes, kinetic apparatuses, ephemeral installations, writings, fragments of ever-changing constructions, and other statements that have been captured by photographers and filmmakers. The inventive devices and countless strategies these artists configure are expressions of an alter ego, which they assume for its power to transform the world and, above all, to transform their own connections to reality.
Historically, collectors and museums have prioritized artworks that are readily collectible and more conventional in their materials and techniques, like paintings, drawings and sculpture--an attitude that elucidates a direct relationship between conservation and recognition. When the Curtain Never Comes Down: Performance Art and the Alter Ego delves into an underside of self-taught art and art brut, opening a door to the study of the field's neglected facets. Under a new light, it considers these creations as interdisciplinary and within a continuous body of work rather than one-dimensional or strictly object-oriented.
Fully illustrated publication that accompanies the exhibition When the Curtain Never Comes Down and explores the daily rituals, public actions, and performance art by twenty-seven self-taught artists from around the world.
By Valérie Rousseau, PhD, with a foreword by Anne-Imelda Radice, PhD, and contributions from Mario del Curto, Beate Echols, Savine Faupin, Gustavo Giacosa, Stefan Hartmaier, Thomas J. Lax, Gianluigi Mangiapane, Martin Mangold, Judith McWillie, Viviane Morin, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Ricardo Resende, Thomas Röske, Lisa Spindler, and Michel Thévoz. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2015. 137 pages, hardcover, 8 1/4 x 10 1/2 in.

When the Curtain Never Comes Down: Performance Art and the Alter Ego

Pencil Is a Key : Drawings by Incarcerated Artists

Laura Hoptman

Courtenay Finn

Nicole Fleetwood

Drawing Center

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Books by Valérie Rousseau