Outsider art : Maltese self-taught artists

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore several areas of a rather philosophical nature on local self-taught artists and Outsider art. The research tackled many questions to discover what type of activity these individuals aspire to and if they think of themselves as forming part of a community known as a global art world. For instance, what gives one the 'right' to call oneself an artist? Does one take that decision alone? Is it related to an activity they are doing or is it an institutional decision? The research examines whether educational institutions contribute in making individuals ‘artists’. The study investigates what 'outsider artists' lack: the training. This means that they lie 'outside' the remit of art in the restricted institutional sense. Several questions were discussed during detailed interviews with six Maltese self-taught artists. It was a very challenging subject to tackle, because the researcher had to deal with people's very personal views of their own position/status in the scale of things. The study also examines the question on whether art should actually be taught or not.