Some Like It Raw
Mitchell Miller
courtesy of the artist, Piers Midwinter
Raw, the dictionary tells us, is a state of purity; the unblended, undiluted and unprocessed. Raw is also an art festival, where unframed paintings are simply blue-tacked to the Gallery walls. "Many artists, including myself, did not put prices up and did not really care for selling their work," says Piers Midwinter, organizer and founder of Raw 2005 (Candid Galleries, London). "It was as if the experience of being there was more important."
"Raw Art" is an umbrella term for work produced outside of the artistic mainstream, ranging from the "outsider" art championed by the surrealist Jean Dubuffet to self-taught artists such as Midwinter, whose day-job is to teach Computing and Information Technology. Midwinter’s paintings play with form and color to create vivid, deceptively naive geometric figures. His story is familiar to many Raw artists. "Back in 1989, I started to paint and was introduced to the Outsider Archive in London. Instantly I knew that this was what I wanted and so I started to ‘do my own thing’ and not care for artistic trends.
There is something attractive about art that exists in defiance of the "mainstream", but can art ever be genuinely ‘raw?’ Looking at some of the work linked through the raw art link website (www.rawartlink.com), the virtual root of the physical festival, raw artists embrace the primitive while exploring sophisticated questions. Take Airom Belcher who draws upon philosophy and psychology in his paintings of thought processes; or Scotland’s Maggie Campbell, whose fragile lines combine with saturated color to portray her schematized human figures, frozen in animal postures.
Raw art is still under-acknowledged in the UK, a notable contrast to France, where the Musee des Arts Decoratifs hosted one of the largest ever exhibitions of outsider art in autumn 2004, including work by well-known "outsiders" such as Scottie Wilson and Henry Darger. Yet in London, very few people seem to have heard of local treasures such as the collection of asylum art on show at the old Bethlem psychiatric hospital (better known as Bedlam). "This country is too hierarchical in its attitudes," noted Midwinter, "and too institutional in its thinking. In Europe and America, individual self-expression and creativity is much more valued and supported. Here, we have to struggle to get works like this seen and give artists a voice."
Which means that the autodidactic spirit animating raw art must apply itself to more than simply producing it. Midwinter carries the rare, hyphenate title of artist-festival director. In addition to exhibiting among his fellow artists, he has almost single-handedly organized Raw Arts. "Only by keeping it close to my chest have I been able to keep it focused on the art and the artists who produce it."
As to the future, Midwinter is cautiously optimistic. "I am not making any firm commitments yet. I want to get feedback from the people I respect the most, the artists, work with that and come up with something that will take the festival forward." This may mean outside of Britain altogether; Gallery 24,which devotes itself to discovering autodidactic and undiscovered artists, has raised the possibility of Raw 2006 in Berlin.
For now, "It is the free-spirited sense of artists following their own path that makes this Festival unique," says Midwinter, whose generosity to his fellow artists in matched by the festival’s inclusive approach. While the exhibit includes established names from the Raw art world such as Liz Parkinson, Elizabeth Turnbull and Philippe Aini, the festival uncovers many new delights "I’m quite bowled over by what the charities have shown me. For instance, the adults with autism group has produced some amazing material. There’s also this guy who sleeps in Regent’s Park, and he is one of the most intelligent and articulate people I’ve met. It’s very humbling. With each artist it’s like you’re entering a different world."
Raw Art was showing at the Candid Galleries, London from May 15 ? 22nd May.www.raf2005.co.uk.
