Title: Raw creation
First published: 1996
Description: The art of visionaries, folk creators, spiritualists, recluses, the 'mad' and the socially marginalized is no longer scorned and cannot be ignored. Among the first to value and collect such work was the French artist Jean Dubuffet (1901-85). For those he judged to represent the 'purest form of creation' he coined the term Art Brut, literally 'raw art' - raw because it was 'uncooked' by culture, raw because it came directly from the psyche, art touched by a raw nerve.

In Raw Creation John Maizels traces the history of the recognition and study of this art and examines the different theories and definitions that have grown up around it. He provides detailed expositions of the work of individual artists ranging from such Art Brut masters as Adolf Wolfli and Aloise Corbaz to such gifted American folk artists as Bill Traylor and Mose Tolliver.

Devoting several chapters to large-scale visionary environments, he takes a broad international view embracing Rodia's towers in Watts, Los Angeles, the Palais Ideal in the south of France, and Nek Chand's sculpture garden in north India.
Subjects: Art, Primitive, Art, Modern, Primitive Art, Outsider art, Art and society, Art brut, Modern Art, Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.), Art, modern, 20th century, Art
Time periods: 20th century
LC classification: N7432.5.A78 M34 1996