Welcome to Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art

Life Lines
The Drawings of Charles Steffen

June 4, 2010 - August 28, 2010

Charles Steffen (1927-1995) studied art at the Illinois Institute of Technology in the late 1940s until he suffered a mental breakdown. Forced to leave IIT, Steffen spent the next fifteen years at Elgin State Hospital where he received treatment for schizophrenia. It was during this period that he began to make art. After his release from the hospital, he moved in with his family on Chicago’s northwest side where he continued to create imagery based upon his personal experiences.

Charles Steffen, The White Rose Garden…, 1994, 17 x 23 inches
Private Collection

Almost There
A Portrait of Peter Anton

July 9, 2010 - December 30, 2010

Peter Anton, a 78 year-old resident of East Chicago, Indiana, creates paintings that illuminate moments of significance from his personal history based on photographs he has obsessively compiled into a massive autobiography titled Almost There. Discovering Peter creating portraits during a visit to Pierogi Fest, co-curators Dan Rybicky and Aaron Wickenden have spent the past four years documenting Peter's environment and day-to-day life of creating art under brutal conditions.

Peter Anton, The Talent Club in 1952
Collection of Dan Rybicky

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more exhibition details.


Henry Darger Room Collection	Experience an evocation of Henry Darger’s personal environment where he illustrated his 15,145 page epic, ...What is known as the Realms of the Unreal..., in this permanent installation.

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Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art promotes public awareness, understanding, and appreciation of intuitive and outsider art through education, exhibition, collecting and publishing. Intuit defines ‘intuitive and outsider art’ as the work of artists who demonstrate little influence from the mainstream art world, and who instead are motivated by their unique personal vision. This definition includes art brut, non-traditional folk art, self-taught art, and visionary art.