Addressing Adult Content

Marty and I had an ongoing discussion for a couple of months about whether or not to put the pieces we have labeled "adult content" on the website. While their strong, personal themes certainly qualify them as visionary or outsider art, their explicit sexual content and misogynous imagery could be controversial. It's not a new debate; I have participated in similar discussions while in art school and at a museum where I worked. Freedom of expression versus censorship; albeit, self-imposed.

In our case, freedom of expression won. Marty argued that collectors of outsider art are used to seeing all forms of expression. Visionary art reveals man's diversity of emotions and experiences, from humor to rip-your-soul-apart anguish. The creator is often feeling pain when he makes these images and, thus, they cause us pain, too. The work forces us to acknowledge things that we didn't believe existed or had chosen to ignore. It makes us uncomfortable, but still we look.

With that said, we recognized that we should allow visitors to our site to make their own decision as to whether or not they want to view these images. Instead of censorship; choice. Another debate ensued as to how to label this category without making a judgment about the work itself. We also needed to be brief, and use vernacular that would be clear. "Adult Content" seemed to address all of those issues.

In the end, it is all about the art. We are attracted to outsider art because of its originality, uniqueness and authenticity. For those that choose to view Jan and Alfred's work, we believe that you will agree that their images qualify on all three counts. Some of Eaker's pieces may appear to be more provocative than others. After all, we can now see women's bare breasts on TV. However, we felt that – given the similar nature of these pieces regarding content and style – they should be presented as a group. We are not making a comparison but suggest that you visit the following sites about Henry Darger as a reference about the issue of adult content and to note that it is not a new theme to the genre. You can access some essays about him, an analysis of his work and reaction to it at Realm of the Unreal: A Page About Henry Darger. A documentary about his life, "In the Realms", aired on PBS in August. Visit the site for more information about him and this movie.