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Singular Visions: Images of Art Brut from the Anthony J. Petullo Collection
September 16 - December 31, 2006
Opening reception Friday, September 16th from 5 - 8 pm

press release
images

Martin Ramirez
Courtyard (#208), 1954
mixed media on paper

Press release:
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art will present the exhibition, “Singular Visions: Images of Art Brut from the Anthony J. Petullo Collection, ”from September 16 – December 31 at Intuit, 756 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago. Gallery hours are noon to 5 pm, Wed.-Sat.; admission is free. An opening reception is scheduled for Friday, September 16, 2005, 5-8 pm, at Intuit.

The forty-two works in this exhibition are from Anthony J. Petullo’s collection of European and American works by self-taught artists, loosely classified as Art Brut. Coined in the 1940s by French artist Jean Dubuffet, Art Brut (today often known by its English translation, “outsider art”) refers to works created by individuals with no formal art training and no consciousness of art world traditions.

Many of these artists produced their bodies of work while institutionalized, including Swiss artist Adolph Wölfli (1864-1930), who during his 35 years in an asylum created a massive volume of colorfully intricate compositions. Others were isolates and loners. For more than forty years Chicago artist Henry Darger (1892-1973) worked as a menial laborer, attended Catholic Mass, and lived in virtual isolation. This seemingly benign existence belied his keenly obsessive artistic output. His 15,000 page epic of good versus evil, “In The Realms Of The Unreal,” was illustrated with meticulous watercolors and was discovered by his landlord at the time of Darger’s departure for an elderly care facility. Artists such as Madge Gill were inspired to create by spiritual muses. Gill believed that she could communicate with the dead, and the creation of her ornate drawings was guided by a spirit.

Curated by Katherine Murrell, “Singular Visions” also features other major artists within the Art Brut canon such as Martin Ramirez, Scottie Wilson, Michel Nedjar, Anna Zemánkozá, and Gugging artists.

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