THE AMERICAN VISIONARY ART MUSEUM
by Skylaire Alfvegren
Upon the foundation of the Compagnie del' Art Brut in 1948, Andre Breton wrote, "Here the mechanisms of artistic creation are freed of all impediment." Painter/collector Jean Dubuffett established the museum to house what he termed art brut ('raw art'). Located in Lausanne, Switzerland, the museum was later joined by the Gugging Art Center of Austria and Germany's Prinzhorn Collection as the world's major repositories of what is now called visionary or outsider art.
Half a century later, America has caught up. In November, 1995, downtown Baltimore became the home to The American Visionary Art Museum, the country's official "National museum, repository and education center for the best in original, self-taught artistry." The largest museum of its kind in the world, it already boasts an attendance 3 1/2 times that of the Musee del' Art Brut.
Six curved galleries, spread over three stories and 35,000 square feet, are centered around a massive iron spiral staircase. The ground floor Permanent Gallery features works on long term loan, as well as selections from AVAM's collection. Numbering over 4,000 pieces, it includes many works donated by artists, as well as over 1,000 pieces donated by famed psychiatrist Dr. Otto Billig. It will remain open while each new exhibit is installed throughout the other five galleries.
"I had enormous pressure to follow the 'star system' - to open with the Finster show, followed by Darger, followed by the Martin Ramirez exhibition. I didn't think that was the proper way to embrace the public; and it doesn't honor the heart of the people who made the art," says founder and director, Rebecca Hoffberger. Unlike the static collections on display in Europe, AVAM presents thematic exhibitions, scouring the country (and world) for suitable works. "The timeless themes that the great philosophers have always struggled with are the same that inspire artistic expression. I had seen so much similarity in subject and theme in art from around the world that it began to arrange itself into categories. Before we opened our doors I knew what the first eleven exhibitions were going to be."
North Carolina mechanic/metalworker Vollis Simpson was commissioned to create the 55 foot tall whirligig in salute to Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness, which stands guard near the entrance. The adjacent 45 foot high barn (formerly a whisky warehouse) has been transformed into a home for sculpture and works too large or unruly to be contained indoors. It currently holds William Thomas Thompson's 300 foot long painting of the entire Book of Revelation, hung from the rafters. Nestled between the museum and the Sculpture Barn is the Wildflower Sculpture Garden which contains a meditation chapel created by English outsider Ben Wilson from found tree branches.
site by
