JANUARY 2022 – brutjournal

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!

THIS MONTH, WE CONSIDER THE WEIGHT OF PAINT EVEN AS WE FEEL THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD — WHILE TRYING NOT TO BUCKLE UNDER THE BURDEN OF THE ONGOING VIRUS PANDEMIC. • • • • • ART OPENS DOORS TO UNDERSTANDING OUR SURROUNDINGS AND TO ITS OWN MYSTERIES. WITH THE OUTSIDER ART FAIR COMING UP SOON, WE LOOK, TOO, AT THE SPECIAL CHARACTER OF ART FROM THE MARGINS OF THE MAINSTREAM. • • • • • OUR MOTTO: MAKE ART, NOT WAR! • • • • • JUST PUBLISHED: THE ART OF STEVEN HIRSCH, FROM AND ABOUT THE FRINGES. FIND IT HERE, ON THE HOME PAGE!

IN THIS ISSUE, DON'T MISS THESE FEATURES

Editor’s letter

What the heck is brutjournal?
by Edward M. Gómez

London

Dan Knight’s art of magical, transformed trash
by Cathy Ward

Switzerland

Lucienne Peiry’s new book on Armand Schulthess’s now-vanished “garden of memory”

In the studio

Weighing the rainbow: The weight of color
by David Bjerklie

OUTSIDER ART: THE 2022 FAIR, THE FIELD, THE LABEL. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH OUTSIDER ART FAIR OWNER-PRODUCER ANDREW EDLIN

The 2022 Outsider Art Fair is scheduled to take place in New York from March 3 to March 6. Taking stock of news and debates in the outsider-art field, OAF owner Andrew Edlin spoke with brutjournal editor in chief Edward M. Gómez in advance of the big event. Free access to this article.

EDWARD M. GOMEZ: SO, JUST WHAT IS OUTSIDER ART?

“Art brut” refers to hard-to-classify creations made by untrained artists on mainstream culture and society’s margins. What about “outsider art” and “self-taught art”? Are they all equivalent terms? Edward M. Gómez reports. Free access to this article.

MAKE ART, NOT WASTE: LET DAN KNIGHT REVIVE, REIMAGINE, AND TRANSFORM YOUR TRASH

Dan Knight creates art “infused with a celebratory, joyous vibe” using water, sound, electricity, and cast-off materials galore, from bottles to old appliances. Our London-based artist-correspondent, Cathy Ward, reports on Kinght’s magical, transformative touch.

FROM CAMERA TO PAINTBRUSH: MAKING PICTURES WITH STEVEN HIRSCH

Steven Hirsch was born and grew up in New York, where he lives today. As a child, he began using cameras and, later, became a tabloid-newspaper photographer. In recent years, he has turned to painting. As a self-taught artist, he finds ideas and inspiration on society's fringes. Here, he tells us how, where, and why.

TODAY'S ART DISCOVERY

The French art brut creator André Robillard recently celebrated his 90th birthday, and although he has stopped making the mixed-media rifles for which he has become well known (using everything from old metal, machine parts to stuffed-animal toys), he continues producing other assemblage-sculptural works and many drawings. He’s still fascinated by rockets and outer space. See our article about Robillard on the BIG PAGE. Above: The artist’s undated statuette of Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, the Soviet cosmonaut who, in 1961, became the first human to journey into space.

JED PERL ON THE ARTS: AUTHORITY AND FREEDOM

In his new book, Authority and Freedom: A Defense of the Arts, the American art critic Jed Perl argues forcefully that the arts are inherently independent, guided by a logic of their own. Coming soon: Our preview of this insightful cri de coeur.

REMOTE, ROCKY, AND REMARKABLE: JOSEP AMENÓS FELIP'S HAND-CONSTRUCTED "TIRE PARK"

The self-taught sculptor-architect Josep Amenós Felip has created a park and a “mini-museum” in a remote village in northeastern Spain. Jo Farb Hernández now offers a third, photo-filled report in her series describing such unusual, site-specific art environments in Spain, which she has spent decades documenting.

“YOKO ONO/PLASTIC ONO BAND”: STILL RADICAL AFTER MANY YEARS

Half a century has passed since the avant-garde artist-composer Yoko Ono’s strange — and oddly compelling — debut record album, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, first came out in 1970. Edward M. Gómez examines the unexpected impact of this still revolutionary sonic blast. Coming soon.

TECHNO-BAROQUE FANTASY: HERE, THE FILM “VALTON TYLER: FLESH IS FICTION” FINDS A HOME

The self-taught artist Valton Tyler (1944-2017) lived and worked in Dallas, Texas, and its environs. He created remarkable works — oil paintings, ink drawings on paper, complex etchings — that remain hard to classify according to existing style or genre labels. In 2017, Edward M. Gómez (brutjournal’s founder) and cinematographer Chris Shields made the first-ever film about Tyler’s life and art, which the artist saw before he died. This 42-minute-long film will reside permanently here, on the magazine’s website. It may be viewed in its entirety, free of charge. Watch it and get to know the bright, bizarre world of a techno-baroque visionary. Free access to this article and the film.