Florida outsider art will only be on display for one more month at the Tampa Museum of Art. The exhibit, on display until May 22, features over 86 works by several self-taught artists from Florida’s West Coast and Central region. The exhibit has unique and diverse pieces that reflect topics including racism, poverty, post-war reality and much more.
What is outsider art?
Outsider art is any work of art produced by an untrained artist who is typically unconnected to the conventional art world—not by choice but by circumstance. These artists frequenlty have their work discovered only after their deaths. The term outsider art was coined in 1972 and it is an English equivalent for the term art brut which in French means “raw art” or “rough art”. Art Brut was a label created in the 1940s by Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture.
During the last several decades, the work of the Outsider artists has come to the forefront of the culture. Outsider paintings and sculptures have made their way into fine art museums hanging alongside new and time-tested paintings and sculptures.
Florida Outsider art
The Tampa Museum of Art’s Florida Outsider art exhibit is titled An Irresistible Urge to Create. The exhibit is from Florida Outside art collector Gary Monroe. He has acquired nearly a thousand pieces of Outsider art, including works by Ruby Williams, Eddy Mumma, Frank Ritchie, and Jesse Aaron.
Here are some of the pieces you can find at The Tampa Museum of Art:
Art from George Voronovsky. Voronovsky was a solitary figure, alone among the sea of elderly Jewish retirees in old South Beach. He reflected an idealized past that he preferred to his post-war reality.
Art from Purvis Young. Young depicted diverse topics with his works such as poverty, the life of the street, the cosmos of despair.
Art from “Miss Ruby” Williams. She lives and paints beneath a wooden lean-to from where she can oversee the fruits and vegetables she grows.