Pan-Art Pedagogy. Theory & Practice Philology. Theory & Practice Manuscript

Archive of Scientific Articles

ISSUE:    Manuscript. 2026. Volume 19. Issue 2
COLLECTION:    Arts

All issues

License Agreement on scientific materials use.

Art-brut photography: approaches to analysis and classification

Anna Alexandrovna Suvorova
Herzen University, St. Petersburg


Submitted: May 26, 2026
Abstract. The study aims to classify photography within art brut and the work of outsider artists. The article examines the specifics of photography in art brut and outsider art of the 20th and early 21st centuries. The narratives, artistic concepts, and technical methods used in the works of Adolf Wölfli (1864-1930), Henry Darger (1892-1973), Eugene von Bruenchenhein (1910-1983), Miroslav Tichý (1926-2011), Jorge Alberto Hernandez Cadi (b. 1964), Alexander Lobanov (1924-2003), and Lee Godie (1908-1994) are explored. The novelty of the study lies in identifying the specifics (narratives, artistic concepts, and technical techniques) of photography in art brut and outsider art of the 20th and early 21st centuries; its core characteristics are defined: non-utilitarianism, conceptuality, radical divergence from mainstream art, and singularity. As a result of the study, the following key trends in art-brut and outsider photography were identified: 1) photography as authorial ontology or a tool for creating ideal universes; 2) the practice of photography as a compensation for mental dysfunctions or a means of overcoming trauma through the construction or presentation of the lives of “Others”; 3) the representation of alternative identities in photography.
Key words and phrases:
классификация фотографии
аутсайдерское искусство
ар-брют
маргинальное искусство
современное искусство
classification of photography
outsider art
art brut
marginal art
contemporary art
Reader Open the whole article in PDF format. Free PDF-files viewer can be downloaded here.
References:
  1. Барт Р. Camera lucida. Комментарий к фотографии / пер. с фр. М. Рыклина. М.: Ad Marginem, 2011.
  2. Беньямин В. Произведение искусства в эпоху его технической воспроизводимости. Избранные эссе / под. ред. Ю. А. Здорового. М.: Медиум, 1996.
  3. Панофский Э. Смысл и толкование изобразительного искусства / пер. с англ. В. В. Симонова. СПб.: Академический проект, 1999.
  4. Суворова А. А. Александр Лобанов: рецепция политического в советском аутсайдерском искусстве // Quaestio Rossica. 2020. № 4. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2020.5.546
  5. Суворова А. А. Дискурс аутсайдерского искусства в культуре XX − начала XXI века: дисс. ... д. иск. СПб., 2021а.
  6. Суворова А. А. Сюрреализм и искусство аутсайдеров // Международный журнал исследований культуры. 2018. № 4 (33).
  7. Суворова А. А. Психиатрический пациент как художник: формирование дискурса аутсайдерского искусства в первой четверти ХХ века // Вестник Томского государственного университета. Культурология и искусствоведение. 2021b. № 41. https://doi.org/10.17223/22220836/41/15
  8. Фуко М. Археология знания / пер. с фр. М. Б. Раковой, А. Ю. Серебрянниковой. СПб.: Гуманитарная Академия, 2004.
  9. Bajac Q. Discoveries of Miroslav Tichý, 1989-2008 // Miroslav Tichý. P.: Centre Pompidou, 2008.
  10. Benjamin W. Letter from Paris (2): Painting and photography // Benjamin W. Selected writings / trans. E. Jephcott. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of H. Harvard University Press, 2002.
  11. Bruenchenhein E. von. Eugene Von Bruenchenhein: Mythologies. Sheboygan, WI: John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2017.
  12. Cardinal R. Outsider Art. L. – N. Y.: Studio Vista; Praeger Publishers, 1972.
  13. Celik I. E. Rethinking Outsider Art in the digital age: an overview of Cara Macwilliam’s artistic practice // Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences. 2024. Vol. 33. https://doi.org/10.1017/s2045796024000702
  14. Danelek J. A. The great airship of 1897: A provocative look at the most mysterious aviation event in history. Scb Distributors, 2010.
  15. Dubuffet J., Chalumeau J. L. Dubuffet, 1901-1985. P., 1996.
  16. Goujard L. What photographic portrait to produce to represent Outsider artists? // Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences. 2023. Vol. 32. https://doi.org/10.1017/s2045796023000793
  17. Lynn L. Inside Outsider Art: Challenges and Opportunities for a Marginalized Genre // Duke Law Journal. 2024. Vol. 74. № 3.
  18. Nelson S. Lee Godie // Artforum. 2016. Vol. 55. № 1.
  19. Rezende P. D. A fotografia ruidosa de Miroslav Tichý: a agência dos equipamentos fotográficos artesanais na construção de uma estética da precariedade // Galáxia (São Paulo). 2022. Vol. 47.
  20. Rhodes C. Outsider Art: Art Brut and Its Affinities. L.: Thames & Hudson, 2022.
  21. Rose G. Visual methodologies: An introduction to researching with visual materials. 5th ed. L.: Sage, 2022.
  22. Suvorova A. Dynamic Similarity: Outsider Art and Avant-garde // KnE Social Sciences. 2018. № 3 (7).
All issues


© 2006-2025 GRAMOTA Publishing