American Self-Taught Art

Self-taught art (or outsider art or folk art) is made up of paintings, drawings, sculptures, assemblages, outdoor constructions and other items created by people with little or no formal training who produce (or at least began by producing) art without regard to mainstream recognition or the marketplace. There are now several periodicals, numerous yearly auctions, and dozens of museums and galleries devoted to the field.

This analysis of the art form in 20th century America begins by explaining the emergence of self-taught art, and introducing the reader to key aspects. The second chapter studies trends, by gender, race and region, and examines such issues as education, employment and the circumstances under which artists became active.

The main body of the work consists of 1,319 biographies of artists--dates, location, origins, education, employment, style, media, themes and unusual characteristics. Another section deals with 44 categories of self-taught art including media (collage, painting, pottery, relief carving, sculpture, etc.); styles (abstract, rudimentary, surrealistic...); and themes (such as animals, death, humor, politics, religion, vehicles and words).