brutjournal – outsider art • art brut • the unclassifiable • the avant-avant-garde

THIS IS THE PLACE FOR DISCOVERIES AND DISCUSSIONS OF THE MOST INVENTIVE ART FORMS – ALL KINDS OF ART THAT IS FAR-OUT, FANTASTIC, FREE-SPIRITED, FUN, FUNKY, PHENOMENAL AND GOOD FOR THE SOUL. (MAMA CALLED IT SUI GENERIS)
SUBSCRIBE, BABY. RIGHT NOW!

THE AUSTRIAN POET-NOVELIST RAINER MARIA RILKE (1875-1926), THAT FAVORITE OF READERS WHO LIKE A LITTLE MYSTICISM MIXED IN WITH THEIR EARLY-MODERNIST ANGST, ONCE OBSERVED, TAKING IN NATURE’S BOUNTY, “EVERYTHING IS BLOOMING MOST RECKLESSLY.” FEELING THE SOUL-STIRRING HEAT, HE ADDED THAT, HAD THE SPLENDOR HE HAD WITNESSED BEEN MADE UP OF VOICES INSTEAD OF COLORS, “THERE WOULD [HAVE BEEN] AN UNBELIEVABLE SHRIEKING INTO THE HEART OF THE NIGHT.” THIS MONTH, WE CRY OUT IN CELEBRATION OF COLOR. POUR ON THE BOLDEST, BRIGHTEST HUES! WHEN WE BUST OPEN OUR PRETTY PINK PIÑATA, YOU’LL FIND IT FILLED WITH RAINBOW-COLORED MACAROONS. DIG IN!

IN THIS ISSUE, DON'T MISS THESE FEATURES

Editor’s Letter

What the heck is brutjournal?
By Edward M. Gómez

Los Angeles

The black American painter Bob Thompson (1937-1966) referred to and subverted various aspects of canonical Western art. His career was short but productive. brutjournal’s U.S.A. West Coast bureau chief Sarah Fensom reviews a Thompson retrospective at the Hammer Museum in L.A.

In the American South

The Texas-based cultural historian and photographer David Ensminger shares a portfolio of photographs of and a report about vernacular traditions of gravesite decoration, with a special focus on festive-solemn displays created by Hispanic Americans and immigrants.

Photos without cameras

The photographer Kaitlyn Danielson, a specialist in historical photo-making techniques, and Leslie LeFranc, a flower farmer, work as a team creating lumen prints (solar photograms). Here, they speak about their inspiration from nature and their ephemeral-feeling visual records of its flora.