CityLife

Exhibition: Intuition - Whitworth Art Gallery

Henry Darger's Attack Of The Tuskahorians

Until summer 2011. Free.

The idea of dedicating a wing in an established public gallery to a collection of art by unrecognised or relatively unknown artists has been a fairly controversial decision.

But that is exactly what the Whitworth Art Gallery’s new show does as Intuition proudly shows around 150 pieces from its newly acquired collection of outsider art.

As an art gallery, the Whitworth has always believed in pushing the boundaries and challenging mainstream preconceptions of what art is.

In recent years, it has hosted an exhibition of provocative and erotic wallpapers and even emptied its gallery of all ‘traditional’ art to give the space over to Marina Abramovic’s performance work.

Embracing ‘L’art brut’, then, is a quite logical step for the Whitworth, and the gallery might as well start with the best: the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection – a staggering 800 or so paintings and drawings, sculptures and textiles, and the largest collection ever presented to a British museum.

Several have since become recognised names, proving the sharp instincts of art dealers Victor Musgrave and Monika Kinley.

Untrained, Henry Darger, Madge Gill (both also unrecognised in their own lifetime) and Chris Hipkiss are still considered outsider artists, but the phenomenal intensity of their work – created compulsively rather than on commission – has begun to raise their profiles among contemporary collectors.

Dozens more names in the show are equally intriguing: Scottie Wilson, Judith Scott, former Tate Gallery assistant Perifimou.

Head of collections, David Morris, says many of them share a history of mental health problems.

He says: “When you look through the biographies of many of the artists who were producing this sort of work in the 20s and 30s and then again in the 50s, it’s incredible how many of them were affected by being in the two world wars and it looks as though their extreme experiences pre-empted mental breakdowns.

“It’s what we now would call post-traumatic stress syndrome, and many of the patients were encouraged to make art as part of their treatment.

“As we still have troops overseas, it may well be that people will continue to need this outlet for their emotions.”

The biggest factor that connects the 44 chosen artists in Intuition, though, is what art historian Roger Cardinal (who curated the first Outsider Collection in 1979) identified as a lack of art history knowledge but an unrivalled ability to explore their own psyche.

“There are probably 60 or 70 artists represented in the whole collection, but we’ve chosen a smaller group of artists who cover the whole spectrum,” adds David.

“Some people may ask how it is that that we have incorporated this work into our collection.

“Our approach in the future is we’ve going to integrate the outsider pieces into our other collections alongside work by mainstream artists because we think they’re just as good.”