ABSTRACT
Like the concept of the ‘primitive’, this notion of the originality-and consequent lack of origins-of outsider art is prob-lematic: these so-called ‘outsiders’ are in fact discovered within the boundaries of the culture from which they are supposed to be independent; in effect, they are treated as endogenous primitives. But influences from their cultural matrix are, in fact, present from the start and form, as I shall argue, a crucial focus in certain kinds of outsider art: in any case, once these images have been discovered and promoted, they re-enter the cultural domain; and once this publicity barrier is breached, the feedback between outsider art and the culture at large becomes too complex for the original notion of ‘outsider’ to be workable.
