- Thursday 16th March 2017, 6.30pm
- Tessa Blackstone Lecture Theatre [11_0003]
The results of that untutored, self-reliant form of artmaking known as ‘Outsider Art’ have been widely collected and admired in recent years. No less intriguing is its cousin, Outsider Architecture (the production of art environments), which is concerned with the solo efforts of individuals keen to enhance their living-space and thus to ‘make special’. Their choice of outlandish materials and their challenging messages can provoke wonderment and awe, and open onto the discussion of moral and political issues.
Roger Cardinal is an international authority on Outsider Art and Outsider Architecture and has written widely on the unlikely work of dedicated individuals ignorant of academic ideals. His book Outsider Art (1972) defined a field of interest in the light of Hans Prinzhorn’s and Jean Dubuffet’s pioneering art collections, and led to his involvement with numerous creative mavericks. Cardinal taught modern French literature for many years at the University of Kent and wrote a book about modern European poetry, Figures of Reality (1981). He is Emeritus Professor of Literary and Visual Studies.