Outsider Art is the work produced outside the mainstream of modern western art by self-taught, untrained visionaries, spiritualists, eccentric recluses, folk artists, psychiatric patients, criminals and others beyond the margins of society and the art market. Coined in 1972, the term in English derived from Jean Dubuffet's `Art Brut' - literally `raw art', `uncooked' by culture, unaffected by fashion, unmoved by `artistic standards'.

In this book Colin Rhodes surveys the history and reception of Outsider Art - first championed by Dubuffet and the Surrealists, now appreciated by a very wide public - while providing fresh critical insights into the achievements of both major figures and newly discovered artists. From spirit-guided Madge Gill to schizophrenic Adolph Woelfli, these individuals passionately and obsessively pursue the pictorial expression of their vision.