Outsider Art, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

Willem van Genk

The Gemeentemuseum The Hague has organized an exhibition about Outsider Art. There is no conclusive definition of the phenomenon.

Willem van Genk

Willem van Genk

Willem van Genk

Willem van Genk

Is it art by mentally disturbed people? Well, apart from what mentally disturbed exactly is, many of the presented artists are not or were not.

Willem van Genk

Willem van Genk

Willem van Genk

Willem van Genk

You might call it work caused by obsession instead of artistic merit. But that is just not true, and does the making of art not need a kind of obsession?

Willem van Genk

Willem van Genk

Aaltje Dammer

Aaltje Dammer

One could even call it art that has been systematically kept outside the art historical discourse, which isn’t completely true either. Also many works are intellectually sound and their sometimes intensive manual labour isn’t therapeutic (although it may have worked like that) but constructive.

Siebe Wiemer Glastra

Siebe Wiemer Glastra

Siebe Wiemer Glastra

Siebe Wiemer Glastra

The present exhibition shows works ranging from naive to intellectually challenging and from very humoristic to extremely sad. I’ll leave you just with the pictures, undisturbed by my comments.

Siebe Wiemer Glastra

Siebe Wiemer Glastra

Pavel Petrovich Leonov

Pavel Petrovich Leonov

Pavel Petrovich Leonov

Michel Nedjar

Michel Nedjar

Rosemary Koczy

Rosemary Koczy

Rosemary Koczy

Rosemary Koczy

Rosemary Koczy

Sylvia Katuszewski

Bertus Jonkers

Bertus Jonkers

Bertus Jonkers

Bertus Jonkers

Bertus Jonkers

Bertus Jonkers

Bertus Jonkers

Bertus Jonkers

Bertus Jonkers

Bertus Jonkers

Bertus Jonkers

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Bertus Jonkers

Bertus Jonkers

Saì Kijima

Saì Kijima

Saì Kijima

Nikifor

NAPAKU

I don’t quite understand what NAPAKU’s aka Piet van den Heuvel’s work is doing in this show. (I wrote quite extensively about his work in 2012 here – in Dutch)

NAPAKU

NAPAKU

NAPAKU

NAPAKU

NAPAKU

(Click on the pictures to enlarge)

Bertus Pieters