Books on Folk and Outsider Art

Collecting Outsider Art can be very rewarding, even more so when you are well informed about the genre. We have listed a few great books on this page that will both delight and enlighten anyone interested in Outsider Art. Please be sure to , we add new books all the time!

Attention Publishers:

To submit your book for consideration,  please send a copy for our review to:

William J. Doss
4516 El Dorado Dr
Gardendale, AL 35071 

Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art, Volume 1
by Paul Arnett (Editor), William Arnett (Editor)

$63.00
The first comprehensive overview of an important genre of American art, Souls Grown Deep explores the visual-arts genius of the black South. This first work in a multivolume study introduces 40 African-American self-taught artists, who, without significant formal training, often employ the most unpretentious and unlikely materials. Like blues and jazz artists, they create powerful statements amplifying the call for freedom and vision. 

Almost 600 pages of spectacular art, insightful and intelligent essays, and very high quality printing on very high quality paper. With so many probing essays (Andrew Young, Amiri Baraka, Vincent Harding, Jack Lindsey, Paul Arnett, Howard  Dodson, Congressman John Lewis, Maude Wahlman, Babatunde Lawal, Roy Sieber, William Arnett, Maxwell Anderson, William Ferris, et al) and beautiful chapters on so many well known (and lesser known) artists, Souls Grown Deep has put "vernacular" art on the map, front and center. And it's about time.This is the best book we have ever seen relating to self-taught art. The photographs  alone are worth twice the price of $63. 

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Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art, Volume 2
by Paul Arnett (Editor), William Arnett (Editor)
$63.00
Completing the two-volume set, Souls Grown Deep, Vol. 2 takes the visual and historical presentation of the first volume to a richer level, offering an even broader array of artistic styles and media. Published in 2000, the first volume explored the diverse historical roots of the genre and introduced artists whose work recalled the South of the pre–civil rights era. This sequel brings the movement into the present, delving into the work of the current generation of artists who are creating a complex form of art that blurs the boundaries between folk and contemporary art.

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Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African-American South: The Ronald and June Shelp Collection
by Arthur C. Danto, Kinshasha Conwill .
$27

 Once categorized as folk but more recently described as outsider or vernacular, the work of essentially self-taught artists has gained in reputation and value in the last half-century. Testimony is the catalog for a traveling exhibition organized by the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture that features 27 Southern African American vernacular painters and sculptors whose artwork is part of the Ronald and June Shelp Collection. Some of the featured artists are well known in the field, including Thornton Dial Jr., who appeared in the 2000 Whitney Biennial. Preceding the biographical information and catalog entries, which are accompanied by portraits of the artists and color reproductions of the objects in the exhibition, are a series of essays by leading scholars on this subject. Besides providing social, art historical, and interpretive commentary on the collection, several essays raise intriguing issues regarding the changing views of the concept of folk, outsider, and vernacular art in contemporary criticism. Although sometimes pedantic, this book can be recommended to any library with an interest in art or African American studies.

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Jimmy Lee Sudduth
by Susan Mitchell Crawley, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
$20

Jimmy Lee Sudduth is one of the elder statesmen of Black folk art in America. A self-taught artist who has lived and worked in Fayette, Alabama, for most of his life, he is comfortably integrated into his West Alabama community. As he once said, "I’m easy to find. I’m in the center of the universe." Sudduth is a gifted painter with remarkable formal skill. He has painted continuously and ecstatically since he was a child, and at ninety-five, he paints that way still. The best of his work reveals an exceptional visual talent coupled with an incomparable delight in the marvelous physical world around him. Jimmy Lee Sudduth is the story of Sudduth’s life and art, with color reproductions of some fifty of his finest paintings. An essay by Susan Mitchell Crawley, associate curator of folk art at the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, describes the artist’s subjects, materials, and techniques and captures the essence of his infinite creativity.

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Art Brut : The Origins of Outsider Art
by Lucienne Peiry
$16

In the first half of the twentieth century, avant-garde artists in Europe, keen to break with academic tradition, began looking beyond the accepted canons of Western art in a search for new sources of inspiration. "Primitive" art, the drawings of children, the art of the insane, automatism, and graffiti all opened up new avenues of experimentation. One of the key figures in this drive to push back the boundaries of art was leading French artist Jean Dubuffet. At the end of World War II, Dubuffet became interested in the works being produced by patients in psychiatric hospitals and by other social outcasts. He made two fruitful trips to Switzerland, where he discovered Wölfli, Aloïse, and Müller, now recognized as important exponents of what was later to become known as "Outsider Art." In 1948, Dubuffet founded the Campagnie de l'Art Brut in order to extend and document the collections he had recently begun. In 1976, after various adventures, the Collection de l'Art Brut moved to its permanent home in Lausanne.

This carefully researched book traces the history of the concept of Art Brut, which is inseparable from the work and personality of the man who did the most for the appreciation and preservation of these remarkable works. The account is completed by biographical notes on the artists featured and an extensive bibliography. The works reproduced, mostly from the collection created by Dubuffet, have retained their subversive freedom, which continues to fascinate and inspire artists and collectors today.

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Coming Home!: Self-Taught Artists, the Bible, and the American South
by Erika Lee Doss (Editor), Hal Fulmer (Contributor), N. J. Girardot (Contributor), Paul Harvey (Contributor), Lee Kogan (Contributor), Babatunde Lawal (Contributor), Leslie Luebbers (Contributor), Cheryl Rivers (Contributor), Charles Reagan Wilson (Contributor), Carol Crown (Editor)
$20 

In the works of many famous self-taught artists, such as Howard Finster and Sister Gertrude Morgan, Biblical themes and imagery abound. How has the Bible inspired these Southern creators?

Examining 125 works of art by more than seventy contemporary folk artists, Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible, and the American South accompanies a traveling exhibition organized by the Art Museum of the University of Memphis. The exhibition features painters and sculptors of wide acclaim, including Finster, Sister Morgan, William Edmondson, Clementine Hunter, Joe Minter Elijah Pierce, Robert Roberg, William Thomas Thompson, and Myrtice West.

In the South, Evangelical Christianity is predominant. Essays in this catalog explore this particular religious influence on the work of Southern self-taught artists. The artwork is considered within the context of contemporary American art and history, literature, and music. Also included are brief essays on thirty-two of the artists along with biographical sketches of each, identifying denominational ties and providing relevant religious information.

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Contemporary American Folk Art : A Collector's Guide
by  Chuck Rosenak, Jan Rosenak   (Contributor)
$19.77

Seasoned collectors and recognized experts, the Rosenaks (The Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Folk Art, Abbeville, 1991) have created this survey of 181 artists grouped in six regions. Entries on artists include biographical notes, collection tips, and lists of museums and galleries where one can see and buy their art. Included in each regional chapter is a selection of color plates and a museum and gallery guide. Following this main section of the book are essays concerning the evaluation, buying, and selling of folk art works and contemporary folk art at auction. This handy travel guide to collecting contemporary folk art will be of interest to collectors with big and small pocketbooks alike.

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Spirits of the Cloth : Contemporary African-American Quilts
by Carolyn Mazloomi, Faith Ringgold
$20

CAROLYN MAZLOOMI DESERVES APPLAUSE!
Adriene Cruz' "Divine Guardian" on the book jacket is an apt appetizer for the smorgasbord that awaits every person who opens Carolyn Mazloomi's SPIRITS OF THE CLOTH.

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Pictured in My Mind : Contemporary American Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen
by Gail Andrews Trechsel (Editor), Roger Cardinal, Lee Kogan, Sus Larsen
$55

Gitter and Yelen are collectors who sought out personal contact with the self-taught, folk, outsider, and naive artists they chose for inclusion in their focused but extensive private collection of late 20th-century works. This catalog was produced for an exhibition of those paintings, drawings, and sculptures mounted by the Birmingham Museum of Art. Minnie Black, John William Day, Clyde Jones, Mose Tolliver, and Malcah Zeldis are among the 53 artists represented here by 200 works. Each entry includes varied examples of artistic creations accompanied by an essay giving detailed biographical, anecdotal, and artistic analysis. Large public libraries and specialized collections will be well served by this survey of artists and their art.

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Passionate Visions of the American South : Self-Taught Artists from 1940 to the Present
by Alice Rae Yelen (Editor), Lowery Stokes Sims (Contributor)
$50

Booknews, Inc. , November 1, 1994
Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name organized and circulated by the New Orleans Museum of Art. Seven essays by Yelen--whose passion for the investigation of this personal art form instigated the project--and several contributors precede the section of 130 colorful works of art, with commentary, arranged in sections on nature, patriotism, social commentary, religious and visionary imagery, daily life, and autobiography. Biographies (with photos) of the artists follow. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

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Outsider Art of The South
by Kathy Moses
$60

Here is an intimate glimpse into the lives and work of thirty-four self-taught artists, two folk art environments, and one museum, which tells the tale of a region's fast-disappearing way of life. Kathy Moses' thoughtful, insightful portraits introduce us to these men and women, some of whom are well known and some not so well known, but who all are driven by a compelling need to create. Their stories are told with warmth, affection, and respect. For many of these artists, this is the first time they have been presented to a wider audience.

With 375-plus photographs, the book beautifully illustrates the range of each artist's work, with more examples per artist than has been shown before. The book is also an invaluable reference guide, with a source section that lists museums and galleries where the art may be seen and purchased, a retail price guide, a bibliography, and many organizations, publications, shows, and auctions devoted to Southern folk, outsider, and visionary art.

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Light of the Spirit : Portraits of Southern Outsider Artists
by Karekin Goekjian, Gerard C. Wertkin
$35

This spectacular volume features photographs and biographies of twenty-one acclaimed self-taught artists from the American South. Howard Finster, Dilmus Hall, Peter Loose, R.A. Miller, Harold Rittenberry Jr., Reverend John D. Ruth, Willie Tarver, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Mose Tolliver, James Harold Jennings, Vollis Simpson, and ten other influential outsider artists are featured in this book. 

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Clementine Hunter : American Folk Artist
by James Wilson, Clementine Hunter
$27
Twentieth-century folk art is receiving increased attention. The Museum of American Folk Art in New York, for example, is building a permanent home to acknowledge and celebrate the importance of this artistic style and heritage. Its collections, while more famous for pre-twentieth-century art, include the work of several twentieth-century artists. One such artist, Clementine Hunter, a black woman born in the nineteenth century, is the subject of this beautiful book. More than 100 color plates demonstrate Hunter's bold use of color. Of particular interest are excerpts from letters written by Francois Mignon, a close friend and curator at the plantation where Hunter was raised and worked for seventy-five years. Mignon's letters to the art collector and dealer James Register, describe Hunter's evolution into one of America's important folk artists. All in all, a beautifully published testament to an American original.

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Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives
by Colin Rhodes
$12
Outsider Art is work produced outside the mainstream of modern art by self-taught, untrained visionaries, spiritualists, eccentric recluses, folk artists, psychiatric patients, criminals, and others beyond the imposed margins of society and the art market. Coined by Roger Cardinal in 1972, the term in English derived from Jean Dubuffet's "art brut"--literally "raw art," "uncooked" by culture, unaffected by fashion, unmoved by artistic standards. In this indispensable book Colin Rhodes surveys the history and reception of Outsider Art--first championed by Dubuffet and the Surrealists, now appreciated by a wide public--while providing insight into the achievements of both major figures and newly discovered artists. From spirit-guided Madge Gill to schizophrenic Adolf Wlfli, these individuals passionately and obsessively pursue the pictorial expression of their vision.

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Self-Taught & Outsider Art: The Anthony Petullo Collection
by Anthony Petullo
$17

Art made by people who are not trained as artists can be remarkably vibrant and evocative, sometimes lovely, sometimes funny, sometimes raw, but always genuine. Petullo has also avidly collected the art of self-taught artists, but he focuses on contemporary painters. These 36 so-called outsiders, mostly European, some mentally ill, have an intuitive drive to make images and forge vigorous and arresting styles all their own. Curator Jane Kallir provides historical and cultural context, but her discussion barely hints at the power of the works themselves. These are hypnotic compositions of truly startling originality, including the organic, hyperdetailed drawings of Scottie Wilson and Anna Zemankova, who said that her works "seemed to draw themselves"; Albert Louden's dynamic paintings; James Lloyd's pointillist gouaches; Sylvia Levine's sensitive modernist oils; and the epic drawings of Henry Darger, to name but a few of these striking, self-realized artists, the equals of their professional peers. Photographs and brief biographies of the artists accompany their works.

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20th Century American Folk, Self Taught, and Outsider Art
by Betty-Carol Sellen, Cynthia J. Johanson
$55

This book attempts a comprehensive compilation of previously ungathered sources concerning self-taught American artists who draw or paint, carve or sculpt, make assemblages, or create art environments. Profiles of galleries, museums, and recent exhibitions focusing on contemporary folk and outsider art include notes on the artists represented. Abstracts cover 459 books and exhibit catalogs, 645 periodical articles, 362 newspaper articles, and 66 audio or visual materials. Brief biographical sketches are included for more than 1000 artists. Contacts for national and regional organizations and a listing of art environments currently open to the public are given. Completing the work is an index that cross-references artists featured throughout this directory. Complementing Chuck and Jan Rosenak's biographical dictionary, Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American Folk Art and Artists (Abbeville, 1990), this is a unique addition for larger art collections.

Folk Art Messenger
...An invaluable tool....the amount of material included is amazing.

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Brothers in Clay : The Story of Georgia Folk Pottery
by John A. Burrison
$22.00

Brothers in Clay tells the story of Georgia's rich Folk Pottery Tradition, the historical forces that shaped it and the families and individual artisans that keep it alive. When initially published in 1983, the book marked the first intensive study of a southern state's pottery heritage and the first examination of a native Georgia Art Form.

"An exhaustive Study of Georgia's Pottery Dynamics" -- Southern Living
"This book is a fitting tribute to the Georgia Folk Pottery Movement" -- Christian Science Monitor

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Mose T's Slapout Family Album : Poems
by Mose Tolliver (Illustrator), Julian Bond (Introduction), Robert Ely
$13.60

Witty Robert Ely poems inspired by the great Mose T.

Paintings by Mose Tolliver, the key folk art painter from Alabama, who is one of America's greatest living treasures, inspired this gem of a book of poems by Robert Ely. The 8" 1/4-by 8 1/4" volume, published in Alabama by Black Belt Press, includes a brief introduction by Julian Bond. Twenty of Mose T's best known images are finely illustrated here in color, alongside the witty poems they inspired. Featured in the book are the fanciful inhabitants of the town of Slapout, among them the "Hoodoo Man...who learned his art from Kubla Khan," the "Jick-Jack Girl...who "kicks off her shoes when she begins to feel the blues" and "Mose t" himself, the artist who "paints pictures made with real paint...and many folks find them quaint."

--David Ebony, Assistant Managing Editor, Art in America magazine.

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WONDERS TO BEHOLD: The Visionary Art of Myrtice West
Edited by Carol Crown
$31.50 144 Pages full color throughout - ISBN 0-914457-99-3 

Working in rural Alabama for seven years, Myrtice West painted the entire book of Revelation in thirteen large, vivid paintings. Wests Revelation Series, exhibited in public only twice, is the subject of a new book featuring essays by seventeen renowned scholars and artists, including Ben Appelbaum, Howard "Finster, George Fowler, Miriam Fowler, Norman Girardot, Rebecca Hoffberger, Lee Kogan, Norbert Kox, Leslie Leubbers, Roger Manley, Ann Oppenhimer, Tom Patterson, Charles Rosenak, Gary Schwindler, Charles Reagan Wilson, and Benjamin Wright. The definitive work on Myrtice West and apocalypticism among self-taught artists, Wonders to Behold will appeal to everyone fascinated by visionary and "outsider" art, Southern Christian fundamentalism, and the furor over the new millennium.

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Howard Finster, Stranger from Another World : Man of Visions Now on This Earth
by Howard Finster, Tom Patterson (Contributor), Roger Manley (Photographer)
$38.50
Born in Alabama in 1915, Baptist preacher turned underground artist Howard Finster claims to have had his first vision at the age of three. Inspired by the word of God, visitations from the dead, and religious visions, Finster has described himself as a stranger from another world and a divine messenger. His mission: to save the world with his art. With such titles as "American Devils Are Very Friendly" and "Judge No Man by Yourself," Finster's obsessive paintings, constructions, and sculptures have been exhibited all over the world, from Los Angeles to SoHo to the Venice Biennale. The text, transcribed from hundreds of hours of taped interviews, is at once disturbing and fascinating. 

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Howard Finster : The Early Years : A Private Portrait of America's Premier Folk Artist
by Thelma Finster Bradshaw
$24.95
My father was trying to build us Eden out of plywood, homemade tools, hard work and an imagination fed by the hand of God," writes Thelma Finster Bradshaw in her biography of her father, Howard Finster: The Early Years: A Private Portrait. Bradshaw is not speaking metaphorically; Finster filled their garden with miniature churches and mansions adorned with onion domes, turrets and spires, a gazebo, a playhouse, a tiny museum and religious iconography. Bradshaw's family-eye view gives the book down-home appeal. Photos and illus. 

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The Night Before Christmas [ABRIDGED]
by Howard Finster (Illustrator), Clement Clarke Moore
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover - 26 pages (November 1998)
Longstreet
$14.95

Classic Clement C. Moore story illustrated by Howard Finster. Vivid paintings bring to life this story of the chance sighting of the world's best-loved gift-giver - Santa Claus. Working in the folk-art tradition, popular 20th century folk artist, Howard Finster offers an original and exciting visual approach to the well-known Yuletide treasure and creates a fascinating union between the traditional and uniquely contemporary.

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