Creating Connections: Self-Taught Artists in the Rosenthal Collection

Creating Connections features over 70 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and watercolors from the Rosenthal Collection of work by self-taught artists. This richly illustrated publication explores the mysterious connections we have with works of art and examines the journey into the meaning of art for its creators. It looks at the historic approaches to the creations of self-taught artists and the problems inherent in their interpretation. It also considers where we should go to achieve a more equitable and inclusive art history.

The Rosenthal Collection comprises a significant and notably varied grouping. Not only does it cover a broad mix of American names including Earl Cunningham, Henry Darger, Thornton Dial, Bill Traylor, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Ralph Fasanella, Martín Ramírez, and Janet Sobel, it also includes non-US artists Carlo Zinelli, Hiroyuki Doi, Adolf Wölfli, Donald Pass, and Nek Chand among others. Jean Dubuffet, the French painter who famously promoted their study, is also featured.

An illustrated interview by Julie Aronson with Richard Rosenthal provides special insight into the collector who has brought together this exceptionally diverse array of work. Essays by Olivia Sagan and Charles Russell look at the need for a more nuanced approach to these artists and their work, at the history of its appreciation (including terminology such as “Outsider Art”), and examine the work in the context of autobiography, trauma, connection, and remembering.

Julie Aronson is curator of American paintings, sculpture, and drawings, Cincinnati Art Museum.

Olivia Sagan is professor of Psychology and head of division of Psychology, Sociology and Education at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.

Charles Russell is professor emeritus of English and American Studies at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, where he was director of American Studies and associate director of the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience.