outsider art

   or Outsider art and outsiders or Outsiders

   Strictly interpreted, outsider art refers to works by those outside of mainstream society. In the United States, outsider art broadly includes folk and ethnic art as well as by prisoners, the mentally ill, children, and others neither trained in art nor making their works to sell them. In Europe, outsider art is more narrowly interpreted as art by the mentally disturbed. The term naive art was once applied to this work, but is no longer considered current. Because fewer and fewer people are sufficiently isolated to be truly outsiders, most are either mentally ill or working far from urban art scenes. Also see art brut, artworld, folk art, and obsession.