Outsider art preserves its aura and is devoted solely to the search for personal and collective meaning. Graphic: The Monroe Family Collection of Florida Outsider Art
BOCA RATON, FLORIDA--For anyone living in the other 49 states, all Florida art might rightly be called "outsider art." But for collector/photographer Gary Monroe, who began his cross-state quest to find the outliers in Florida's art community, it was the renegades that inspired him to spend a decade of his life crisscrossing the state from the Keys to the Panhandle seeking art that was driven by life itself.
Thirty years later, his carefully curated and archived collection is on display for the public to enjoy at the Boca Raton Museum of Art through September 5th. Titled, An Irresistible Urge to Create: The Monroe Family Collection of Florida Outsider Art, the exhibit consists of 86 pieces by 44 Florida artists, and has already been tapped to travel to other museums.
After originating at the Boca Raton Museum of Art through September 5, the exhibition will travel to the Tampa Museum of Art (November 4, 2021 – May 22, 2022), and then to the Mennello Museum of American Art (June 10, 2022 – October 16, 2022). The exhibition catalog, published by the Boca Raton Museum of Art, is available for purchase at the museum store.
Among the artists represented are: Purvis Young, George Voronovsky, Aurelia “Mama” Johnson, Frank Ritchie, Ruby “Miss Ruby” Williams, Gene Beecher, Kathy d’Adesky, Brian Dowdall, Floryan (Florian) Ludwig, Reva Freedman, Ozzie Lee “OL” Samuels, Sybil Gibson, Joey Smollon, Polly Bernard, Milton Ellis, Janice Kennedy, John Gerdes, Susanne Blankemeier, Morgan Steele, Alyne Harris, and Ed Ott. The works by some of these artists have never been seen publicly before.
The history of "Outsider Art"
The interest in what is frequently called Outsider Art began in the early 20th-century with psychiatrists who studied artists who were institutionalized. In 1922, the book Artistry of the Mentally Ill became influential to the Surrealists. Later, in 1948, Jean Dubuffet and others founded the Compagnie de l’Art Brut, a collection of what they called “raw art” – art made outside the traditions of fine art.
According to Kathleen Goncharov, the Senior Curator of the Boca Raton Museum of Art:
“This interest has recently increased exponentially, as more mainstream institutions celebrate these kinds of artists. ‘Outsider’ artists are now most definitely ‘In.’ Many controversial terms have been bandied about to describe them, such as self-taught (in addition to ‘outsider’), but no truly definitive name yet. I suggest we call all creative works that are arresting, intriguing, and interesting conceptually, as simply ‘art’ and leave it at that. Jean Dubuffet said it best when he declared that art’s best moments are when it forgets what its own name is. Artists create – that’s what they do.”
More about the individual artists
At ninety-one years of age, Milton Ellis became homeless after a freak tornado barreled through his New Smyrna Beach residence in January of 2007. His personal possessions now filled two grocery bags while his large reverse-paintings on Mylar, which had been rolled up and stowed away for thirty years, somehow remained unscathed by nature’s fury. Through these paintings, Milton had expressed his vision of a pending apocalypse.
The “inlaid paintings” of John Gerdes appear to be made by assembling small wooden pieces, but each one is tediously painted to mimic varieties of wood. He incorporated an array of textures, knots, and grains to further delight the eye. Gerdes’ electronically-driven sculptures are three-dimensional versions of his geometric-perspective-based artwork. Using discarded computer circuit boards, he constructed elaborate edifices and occasionally lighting fixtures.
Ruby “Miss Ruby” Williams lives and paints beneath a wooden lean-to from which she can oversee the sale of the fruits and vegetables that she grows. Williams’ produce stand is along the deserted stretch of highway near Lakeland. People zooming by, along State Road 60 through Beallsville, easily read her vivid and bold marketing signs. Most of her paintings have life lessons, offering “It will get Better” and “Tired of Being the Good Guy,” and “Shut Your Mouth.”
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