The Cunningham Dax collection Book

I have recently been reading copies of the 'Folly Journal' issued by the Folly Fellowship and some of the places they discuss (amazing Wisconsin shell houses built by priests, Nek Chands Rock Garden in Chandigarh) cross into the territory of 'Outsider Art'. Both 'Follies' and 'Outsiders' are nebulous terms (you know it when you see it) but only a few days later in a small town I came across this book.

I remember seeing the show to which it is the catalogue and wonderful it was. All the artworks are reproduced in colour and some of the Prinzhorn artists are among the most famous of the genre such Johann Knopf,Heinrich Anton Muller and August Natterer (Google 'em!). But linger also over Katharina Detzel and her life sized sewn male dummy, August Johann Klose with his odd autobiography written in miniscule text (fully illustrated of course), Heinrich Mebes religious/alchemical drawings, and Jakob Mohr' drawings of bewitching(?) machine emanations. Its all great stuff.

There are a few essays, partly of the art theory kind (though actually quite readable) which I wsnt so keen on. It was interesting to learn that Prinzhorn encouraged certain artists with payments of some kind and that some artists (such as Detzel) had jobs before their 'breakdowns' that seem to link into their creations. This raises questions over 'authenticity'. A 'paid' artist (even if it is in chocolate or art materials) is perhaps not so spontaneous as might be thought, and artists whose work reflect their trades are perhaps not devoid of influence from consensus reality (though equally one argue that a person finds their place that serves them best). So there are no easy answers. Some essays make odd assumptions along the lines of (I paraphrase) "removing a single image from a series negates it as art". Really? Who is to say? You Doctor? You Curator? Or me, consumer?

This confusion within the essays and that some of the images with a lot of text are not translated (we could have at least been given the gist of it) knocks it down a few stars, but...if you are looking to build a reference library of 'this type of thing' I think you'll want a copy.