view all images at larger size| 1921 | Walter Morgenthaler, a doctor in a clinic in Waldau, Switzerland, publishes A Psychiatric Patient as Artist. This monograph was the first to seriously consider the art of a psychiatric patient, Adolf Wölfli. |
| 1922 |
Hans Prinzhorn, a German psychiatrist, begins to collect the work of his patients and publishes The Artistry of the Mentally Ill. Prinzhorn was interested in how his patients' work related to the broader art scene of the period. The Surrealists were influenced by his book and began to collect the type of work it discussed. |
| 1945 |
French artist Jean Dubuffet visits psychiatric hospitals and prisons in order to collect art produced by inmates. He coins the term 'Art Brut' - raw art. |
| 1948 | Jean Dubuffet publishes the Art Brut Manifesto in which he defines 'Art Brut' as: 'works produced by persons unscathed by artistic culture, where mimicry plays little or no part . . . These artists derive everything - subjects, choice of materials, means of transposition, rhythms, styles of writing, etc. from their own depths and not from conventions of classical or fashionable art. . . It is thus an art that manifests an unparalleled inventiveness'. Dubuffet establishes the Compagnie de l'Art Brut, an organisation of sixty members committed to searching for new work. Their collection was kept at a publishing house in France. |
| 1949 | The first Art Brut show, Outsider Art in Preference to Cultural Arts, is held at the René Drouin gallery in Paris. |
| 1951 | The Compagnie de l'Art Brut is dissolved after the publishing house which accommodated the collection closes. Dubuffet plans to relocate the collection to The Creeks, a sixty-acre space in the East Hamptons, USA, which had been purchased by an artist friend, Alfonso Ossorio. In November, Dubuffet travels to the United States and delivers an influential lecture at the Chicago Art Institute entitled Anti-cultural positions. In it he questions attitudes towards art and aesthetics. |
| 1952 | In April the Art Brut Collection is installed in The Creeks. Works from the L'Art Brut Collection were hung alongside paintings by Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Clifford Still, Willem de Kooning, and Dubuffet himself. The Creeks served as a meeting spot for artists as well as critics like Clement Greenberg. It was required viewing for anyone seriously interested in contemporary art. |
| 1953 |
 Victor Musgrave opens Gallery One, initially in Litchfield Street and then D'Arblay Street in Soho. The gallery was open for ten years, during which time Musgrave refused to show anything which people already knew. Some of the artists he did show included Jean Dubuffet, the Fluxus Collective, Yves Klein, Nam June Paik, Bridget Riley and FN Souza. One of his more memorable mixed exhibitions included a display of Manhole Covers.
Victor Musgrave in front of Gallery One, London |
| 1959 | The Tate is given two works by Outsider artist Scottie Wilson, donated by Charles Aukin. |
| 1962 | The Art Brut collection consisting of 1200 works returns to Paris and the Compagnie de l'Art Brut is reinstated. Victor Musgrave, art gallery director and distinguished poet and filmmaker, becomes a member. |
| 1964 | The first booklet documenting the Art Brut collection is published. |
| 1967 | The Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris holds the first exhibition of Jean Dubuffet's entire collection. |
| 1972 |
Roger Cardinal coins the English term Outsider Art. Cardinal said: 'I believe that a paramount factor in the critical definition of the creative Outsider is that he or she should be possessed of an expressive impulse and should then externalize that impulse in an unmonitored way which defies conventional art-historical contextualization'. Swiss curator, Harold Szneeman, features Outsider artists at Documenta 5 in Kassel, Germany. |
| 1976 |
Jean Dubuffet's collection of L'Art Brut is given a permanent home at the Château Beaulieu in Lausanne, Switzerland. |
| 1978 | |
| 1979 |
The first major exhibition of Outsider art in England opens at the Hayward Gallery on 5 February, co-curated by Roger Cardinal and Victor Musgrave. In the preface to the catalogue, Musgrave wrote: 'Here is an art without precedent. It offers an orphic journey to the depths of the human psyche, filled with amazing incident, overspilling with feeling and emotion yet always disciplined by superlative technical resources. ' The show was well received by the 40,000 visitors who attended, although the opinions of the critics were split. The Third Eye Centre in Glasgow organises an exhibition called Another World. |
| 1981 /82 |
Musgrave curates Arte Incomun at the 16th Sao Paulo Biennale. Musgrave decides to build an Outsider collection and archive. He and Monika Kinley travel widely abroad and in the UK to search for new artists. |
| 1983 |
Kinley and Musgrave hold an exhibition, Artists make faces, which features work by Paula Rego, John Davies and Maggie Hambing alongside that of two Outsiders, Scottie Wilson and Albert Louden. Swiss curator, Harold Szneeman features Outsiders in the exhibition The Tendency Toward the Total Work of Art. |
| 1984 | Victor Musgrave dies. |
| 1985 |
Kinley continues to expand the collection and curates an exhibition of Albert Louden's work at the Serpentine Gallery, London. Louden is also shown at the Prema Arts Centre, a disused Baptist Chapel in Uley, Gloucestershire. Andrew Wood, the Director was an early champion of Outsider Art. Insiders & Outsiders is held at Goldsmith's College, London, and features a selection from the Outsider Archive.
Monika Kinley at the Outsider |
| 1986 |
Kinley curates the first Scottie Wilson show from the collection in Glasgow at the Third Eye Centre. She also curates a smaller show of Wilson's work for Art en Marge in Brussels, a space run by Outsider devotee Francoise Henrion. Outsiders is held at the Rosa Esman Gallery in New York. Ben Wilson, a British Outsider, is shown at the Prema Arts Centre in Uley. Albert Louden's work is shown in a window display at Harvey Nichol's, London, and in the Rosa Esman Gallery, New York. Kinley attends and purchases key pieces at the sale of residents' work at the Gugging psychiatric clinic in Austria. |
| 1987 | The Graves Art Gallery in Sheffield becomes the first public institution in England to actively buy Outsider art. Anna Zemánková has a solo show at the Serpentine Gallery in London and Albert Louden is shown at Art en Marge in Brussels. Kinley curates In Another World:Outsider Art from Europe and America at the South Bank Centre in London. It tours seven venues across the UK. The Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection displays works at Naivi '87, the international exhibition of Naïve and Outsider Art in Zagreb. |
| 1988 |
Dusan Kusmic, Anna Zemánková and Shafique Uddin are shown at the Prema Arts Centre in Uley. A professional artist's fundraising event is held at the Heritage Centre, an old synagogue in Spitalfields, to raise funds for the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection. Artists donated masks which were auctioned. A Celebration of Outsider Art is curated by Kinley at the Giray Gallery in London. Kinley visits the Southern United States and embarks on a road trip with Roger Manley and six others to visit Outsider environments. |
| 1989 |
Scottie Wilson: The Canadian Years is held in Regina, Canada. It is co-curated by Helen Marzolf and Peter White. Pascal Verbena and Michel Nedjar are both shown at the Prema Arts Centre in Uley. Open Minds is held at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst in Ghent and features an assemblage of Outsider and other artists. John Maizels launches Raw Vision- International Journal of Intuitive and Visionary Art - a magasine that focuses on Art Brut, Outsider Art and Folk Art. |
| 1990 |
British Art Show is held at McLellan Galleries in Glasgow, the City Art Gallery in Leeds and the Hayward Gallery in London. The exhibition includes works by Shafique Uddin. Portraits from the Outside is held at the Parsons school of Design in New York. Kinley curates an Outsider show for Alpha Cubic, a fashion house in Tokyo. Outsider Artists is shown at the Café Gallery, London, and Dean Clough in Halifax. |
| 1991 |
Outsider Artists is held at Art en Marge in Brussels. The show also travels to Malmo Konsthall in Sweden. It includes works from the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection. The Artists of Gugging is held at the Moore College of Art in Philadelphia.
Rudolf Horacek |
| 1992 | Parallel Visions: Modern Artists and Outsider Art is held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. |
| 1993 |
The first Outsider Art Fair, takes place at the Puck Building in New York in January. This has become an annual event. Monika Kinley in New York |
| 1994 |
The Outsider is curated by Kinley at the Rona Gallery in London. Madge Gill has a solo exhibition in Toyko, curated by Kinley in collaboration with Shiseido cosmetics. Michel Nedjar and Pascal Verbena are shown at Reeds Wharf Gallery, London. |
| 1995 |
Kinley curates a show on Outsider artist Carlo Zinelli in Tokyo, sponsored by the cosmetic company Shiseido. The American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) opens to the public on 24 November in Baltimore. The Musgrave Kinley Outsiders Collection is shown at the London Contemporary Art Fair held at the Business Design Centre. Carlo |
| 1996 |
Marina Warner curates The Inner Eye, an Arts Council exhibition. It includes works from the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection. Board
of trustees meeting for the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection
(Lord Renton, former Chair; Monika Kinley, Francis Carnwath, current Chair; Louise Sheridon, Monika's assistant) |
| 1997 |
Kinley curates Ingenious Creators, a show of Outsider artists, at the Angel Row Gallery in Nottingham. Sava Sekulic has a solo show in Tokyo curated by Kinley, sponsored by cosmetic company Shiseido. |
| 1998 | The Irish Museum of Modern Art provides a home for the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art collection. This is celebrated by a major Outsider exhibition in Dublin, Art Unsolved, which goes on to tour the north and south of Ireland. |
| 2002 | Outsider Art: The Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection from the Irish Museum of Modern Art is held at the Whitworth Art Gallery, in Manchester and co-curated by Alistair Smith and David Morris. |
| 2003 |
The Tail that Wags the Dog, Outsider Art in the Expressionist Tradition from the Musgrave Kinley Collection, tours with the COBRA group. It is co-curated by Catherine Marshall. The records of the Musgrave Kinley Outsiders Trust are donated to Tate Archive, housed in the Hyman Kreitman Research Centre, Tate Britain (TGA 200327). Oswald Tschirtner |
| 2004 | Vernacular Visionaries: International Outsider Art in Context is held at the Museum of International Folk Art, in Santa Fe, United States. Outsiders such as Carlo and Anna Zemánková are included in the show. |
| 2005 | The Musgrave Kinley Outsider Trust archive is donated to Tate Britain. Outsider Art the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection and Archives, featuring a selection from the Collection and Archives, is held at Tate Britain. |
| 2006 | Rough Magic, a touring exhibition curated by Jon Thompson and Monika Kinley will travel to the Fundación La Caixa in Madrid, the Whitechapel Gallery in London and the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin. This shows Art Brut and Outsider Art alongside work by established fine artists. |
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