Andrew Edlin Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of Art
Brut, Neuve Invention and Outsider Art running concurrently with
Art Basel Miami Beach from December 3 - 8th 2003. The exhibition
will be held at The Elan's Florida headquarters 2 blocks east of the
Miami Beach Convention Center and 1 block south of the Bass
Museum. The exhibition will feature a range of historical and
contemporary work by artists working outside of the mainstream
artworld, and will trace the history of this work from the early part of
the last century to the
present.

The term "Art Brut" (translated "Raw Art") was coined by the French
artist Jean Dubuffet in 1945 to refer to the art of schizophrenics,
mediums, and eccentrics, and was intended to shake up the
European artworld at mid-century. "What we mean is anything
produced by people unsmirched by artistic culture...So that the
makers draw entirely on their own resources rather than on the
stereotypes of classical or fashionable art" wrote Dubuffet.The
exhibition will present the work of major artistes brut including
Adolph Wölfli(1864-1930)and Hans Krüsi(1920-1995).

In 1972, British art historian Roger Cardinal introduced the term
"Outsider Art", first intending it to be a direct translation of
Dubuffet's term for English speaking audiences. It has since
become the popularly accepted name for an expanded range of
artistic expression created outside of mainstream society and the
mainstream artworld. This includes the art of mental patients,
prisoners, religious and social visionaries, and aesthetic
mavericks from both rural and urban settings. Works by Bill Traylor,
Henry Darger and Charles Dellschau will be featured in the
exhibit.

In 1982, towards the end of his life, Dubuffet acknowledged a
middle ground of emerging artists who were neither "outsider" nor
"inside" as "Neuve Invention", or "fresh invention". In the work of
these artists he recognized self-taught genius despite evidence of
academic training or awareness of current art trends. This in-
between category is especially relevant today, as new artists with
hybrid aesthetic languages continue to emerge on the outskirts of
the contemporary art world. The exhibition will present a number
of cutting-edge neuve invention artists including Vahakn
Arslanian, Tom Duncan, Paul Edlin, Marc Lamy, Michael Ryan and
Linda Carmella Sibio.