Zaudejumi un ieguvumi cela no autsaidera lidz kanonam

• Authors: Janis Kalnacs

Title variants

EN

GAINS AND LOSSES ON THE PATH FROM OUTSIDER TO CANON

• Languages of publication: LV

Abstracts

EN

The notion of “outsider”, being more a sociological and psychological category, has an overtone of stoic self-sufficiency and suggests noble rather than deplorable characteristics - at least in the sense that it encompasses a measure of independence and courage. In a totalitarian society, ideologically unsuitable and rejected persons also join the ranks of outsiders. The notion of outsider acquires different meanings in capitalist society governed by corporate connections and leaders, marketing, mass media and project management. It may well be that many see themselves as outsiders in the contemporary globalised, mobile and frustrating world. What I mean by outsider is an artist who dares to stand apart from society or is driven out/not accepted by it for some reason. An ideal but practically impossible case would be the artist who creates out of his/her artistic and often ideological conviction, regardless of daily income. Here one might find a link between outsiders in art and conceptual art. The conflict between the outsider and society has something of the typical romanticist idea of the artist’s predestination, still current in the shifting value system of the post-modern situation. An empathic art historian’s attitude is often decisive in the ‘discovery’ of outsiders. It is important to recognise that outsider art is not exactly the same as an outsider in Latvian art. During the period of Soviet occupation (1950s-1980s) many of the most independent artists, now belonging to the so-called artistic canon, were outsiders in their time. However, the output of the self-taught wood sculptor Mikelis Pankoks who spent part of his life in Waldhaus Psychiatric Clinic in Switzerland after World War II, conforms to the notion of outsider art if this comprises both the art of the mentally ill and the work of naïve artists. This close relation in which distinctions are difficult to make was stressed by the short-lived Museum of Naïve and Outsider Art in Zwolle, the Netherlands. The most famous outsider artist in Latvia is Karlis Padegs; the article also deals with the creative output of Arvids Strauja, Leonids Arins, Peteris Smagins, Valters Hirte and other artists coinciding with the notion of outsiders in art.

Keywords

EN

OUTSIDER ART; LATVIAN ART; KARLIS PADEGS; MIKELIS PANKOKS; LEONIDS ARINS; PETERIS SMAGINS; VOLDEMARS IRBE; ARVIDS STRAUJA; ADOLFS ZARDINS; GEORGS SENBERGS; VALTERS HIRTE; EDGARS KRIGERS RAIMONDS LICITIS

• Publisher: Publishing House 'Neputns', Terbatas iela 49/51-8, Riga LV-1011, Latvia; www.neputns.lv
• Journal: Materiali Latvijas makslas vesturei
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 8
• Pages: 165-177

Contributors

author

Janis Kalnacs

• Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, 4 Cesu Street, Valmiera LV-4200, Latvia