Entering

Part 1: Outsider Artists Who Changed My Life

Borders and Challenges: Henri Rousseau
Children Who Painted Freedom: The Camp Painters and Friedl Dickerbrandeis
Don't Forget Me: Sylvain Fusco
Be Happy, Be Happy: Aloise Corbas
The Man of Many Hearts: August Natterer
The Janitor Creates the World: Henry Darger

Part 2 Unique, bizarre, incomprehensible, and therefore attractive

To You Who Can't Meet: Georgiana Houghton
A Story Drawn with a Frozen Voice: Hendrik Averkamp
I was sick for a long time before writing this: Richard Dadd
The Postman's Dream Shelter: Ferdinand Cheval
Requiem for Paula: Paula Modersonbecker
The Sorrow of Life, Brilliantly: Seraphine Louis

Part 3: The Path Led by New 'Eyes' and 'Hands'

The World's Most Beautiful Funeral: Ana Anker
Bad Picture: Kaim Soutine
The Genomics of Tearing: Anne Ryan
A Life of Neither Good nor Bad: Florin Mitroi
The Brothers Who Built Robots: Josef and Karel Capek

Part 4 And They Came Back to Me

Picking Up Pieces of Heaven: William Edmondson
The Best Made on the Street: Bill Traylor
Parisian Postman Becomes Painter: Louis Vivin
When War Makes Art: Horace Pippin
Finding Her Name: Winifred Knight
Garcia Style: Joaquin Torres Garcia

Author's Note
References

A charm you've never experienced before
The heartfelt art that life itself exudes

This book consists of 21 chapters in 4 parts.
Part 1, 'Outsider Artists Who Changed My Life,' is a record of the moments when I became immersed in forgotten artists.
These include Henri Rousseau, who was considered a world-class master but received recognition after his death; Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, who taught drawing to children in a Nazi concentration camp and ended up in a gas chamber; Sylvain Fusco, who continued to create art despite being imprisoned as a political prisoner; Aloise Corbaz, who expressed his love through fantasy even amid the devastation of World War I; August Natterer, who sublimated schizophrenia into art; and Henry Darger, who was just a janitor while he was alive but left behind an enormous world of art.
In particular, Decker Brandeis, who taught children according to his beliefs in a concentration camp, is also a role model for the author, an art educator.
The book also features artwork drawn by children in the camp, and their innocent paintings make the tragedy of history all the more painful.
The world of work of Henry Darger, a representative artist of outsider art, is also worth noting.
He goes beyond reflecting reality and recording the times to creating a world in a small room. This boundless imagination is also the power of outsider art, which was difficult to achieve within the framework of formal education.

Part 2, 'Unique, Strange, Incomprehensible, and Therefore Attractive', is where you can best experience the charm of outsider art that you have never experienced before.
It includes the stories of Georgiana Houghton, who created works using the popular 'planchette', a device that was said to record the soul; Hendrick Avercamp, a silent writer who never uttered a word since his birth; Richard Dadd, a painter loved by Queen's lead singer Freddie Mercury; Ferdinand Cheval, who spent his life completing his own palace; Paula Modersohn-Becker, who left behind one of the most meaningful self-portraits in history; and Seraphine Louis, an author whose life was also highlighted in a movie.
Richard Dadd, who made it especially difficult for the author to write until the end, is a murderer.
Looking at the painting that Freddie Mercury created through song (page 94), the author asks, "Can this painting be called beautiful?" and readers also find themselves caught up in that question in front of the beautiful and precise description.
Georgiana Howton, who created 'With Soul' to express her longing for the departed, will understand the feelings and works of those who have lost a loved one.


It has already begun and is approaching quickly
The Sparkling Return of Vanished Painters

Part 3, ‘The Path Led by New ‘Eyes’ and ‘Hands’’, is the story of pioneering writers who pioneered new paths.
Anna Ancher, who was born where two seas of different colors meet and interacted with numerous artists; Chaim Soutine, who violently painted animal corpses; Anne Ryan, who raised three children and left behind an enormous collection of collages; Florin Mitroi, the 'father of Romanian modern art', whose extensive work of over 8,000 pieces was discovered after his death; and Josef and Karel Čapek, brothers who first coined the word 'robot'.
The book is worth the price just for getting to know this work, as it arouses admiration in the viewer in terms of expression and technique.
In particular, the stories of Chaim Soutine and the Capek brothers, who suffered political oppression, are as captivating as reading a novel, and when you encounter the works along with their stories, you experience the birth of a new artistic aesthetic.


Part 4, 'And They Came Back to Me', introduces aspects of outsider art that have already become a trend.
William Edmondson, the first black artist to hold a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; Bill Traylor, the 'master' of outsider artists; Louis Vivin, who went from being a street artist to the dream of art collectors; Horace Pippin, who sparked his artistic spirit even in the midst of the horrors of slavery and war; Winifred Knights, who held a solo exhibition 70 years after her death; and Joaquin Torres Garcia, the founder of a new type of abstract art, are artists who are already acclaimed around the world and have been gradually introduced to Korea.
The stories of Edmondson, who found art in nature with minimal effort, and Bill Traylor, who found happiness even in street life, still provide us with abundant warmth.
And it is also a pleasure not to be missed to read the small anecdotes related to artists who have already become classics, such as Piet Mondrian and Marcel Duchamp, who appear in this chapter.


There is no such thing as trivial art or trivial life.
About the greatness we all possess

"The Art Museum Taken Out of the Drawer" is a book that "seems to talk about the anxiety of disappearing, but ultimately makes you hopeful for a beginning" (recommendation, actress So Yoo-jin).
This is partly due to the splendid return of the artists featured in this book, but more importantly, it gives us hope that even ordinary people like us possess greatness.
The author states in the introduction that he wrote this book “for all those who are afraid of their lives being destroyed.”
The author can say this because he himself has experienced comfort and healing through 'outsiders' and has had his self-esteem raised.
This is probably the same reason why readers who read the stories of the twenty-one people listed here each experience healing from their loneliness.


With so many art-related books being published, the existence of this book shines even brighter.
This is because it is not just a simple list of knowledge, but also has a deep-seated insight into life and a warm heart that seeks to restore those who have disappeared.
Therefore, this book holds great significance as an art textbook containing new and emerging knowledge, as a high-quality essay containing the author's honest experiences, and as a source of encouragement for all those in need of comfort.
The author says he kept the following phrase in mind throughout the book's writing.
“There is no such thing as trivial art.” And by publishing this book, I am able to say with even greater force, “There is no such thing as trivial art, and there is no such thing as trivial life.”
Everyone feels pathetic at times.
That is precisely when the comforting power of this book will shine the brightest.
Because this book has the power to instantly transform our lives into something not so trivial.


Author's Note

Every time I wrote an article in this book, I thought about 'diversity.'
I also thought about the history of people being excluded because of their race, gender, disability, or age.
I dreamed of a time when people who always stay in the same place no matter how hard they try to make a firm start can run properly, a time when those who have always lost can finally win.
I hope the artists featured in this book can join me in dreaming such dreams.
I must confess that I hope to be the last person to use the term "outsider art."
I hope and pray that they will spread their wings, become widely known, and shake off the label of "outsider" that has been attached to them, and take their place as one of the many diverse things.

They changed every corner of my life.
When I felt defeated in life, when I lacked confidence, when inexplicable fears consumed my heart, it saved me in various ways.
I believe that good art always protects our lives, which are diverse and different.
They give me valuable advice in different ways every time.
That is why I will continue to explore the lives and works of unknown painters.

For over three years while I was writing this book, this sentence was printed in bold letters on my computer:
'There is no such thing as trivial art.'

Now that I have finished writing this book, I can speak with a more solid stance.

There is no such thing as trivial art, and no such thing as trivial life.

Summer 2022, in the study
Lee So-young