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Outsider Purvis?  Outsider art is art that is quite often created by people who are outside of the societal mainstream—those who are imprisoned, institutionalized, or distanced from the mainstream community by geographic isolation often fit into this category. Outsider artists tend to have lived isolated lives with little or no contact with the world beyond their own very private or isolated one. 1

So, is Purvis an Outsider Artist? Perhaps it is true that Purvis did learn to paint during his very brief time in prison, but his painting career continued long and far past those days. The drama of his imprisonment quite often catches the sensational palette of those eager to hear his narrative. However, anyone close to Purvis is quick to set the record straight—Purvis was arrested for breaking and entering and not a violent crime as it has mistakenly been retold—his jail time was brief—and, this isolated incident happened during his teenage years. To define Purvis as an Outsider Artist because of his association as a jailbird artist completely misrepresents history.

While it is exotic to imagine an imprisoned “social misfit” creating coveted masterpieces, that story doesn’t at all come close to fitting Purvis Young. Purvis discovered his calling to paint during his imprisonment, but the colorful work we have all come to know and adore was and is still made in a time and place far beyond his short-lived prison term nearly 40 years ago. (Making the case for considering Vincent Van Gogh as an outsider artist on the basis of his mental health is a case better made than the one for Purvis Young.)

Purvis is a quiet man who often works in isolation. Does that make him an Outsider? The life of an artist is often a quiet, reflective, independent life. These personal qualities don’t warrant categorization in this genre any more than having green eyes includes an artist in the green art movement. What about how “outside” he is from traditional art establishments? Purvis is certainly outside of the box when it comes to the artist that the traditional art world is comfortable with—he doesn’t buy “art” supplies, he is not founds in the New York scene—he doesn’t particularly acknowledge his prestigious accolades—he doesn’t work the wealthy social network of art connoisseurs—and having spent not even a day in a traditional art school, he is self taught. What this amounts to is a pure artist who is not outside the art world but rather beyond the art world.

Young works from a base of inner confidence. Knowing that what he does is authentic, he works without needing approval or acceptance from any establishment.  Rather than considering this as a rejection of the art world, it is an acceptance of the sacred. So rare is this inner peace among artists vying to be recognized that some have mistakenly misunderstood this to be a sign of “outsiderness.” Purvis isn’t rejecting the art world; he just isn’t embracing it. He is committed to “the real”—to getting his hands dirty in his daily routine of working hard at painting. And, he is familiar with what goes on in the art world. In fact, one of his earliest motivations to paint came as a reaction to his interest in the Wall of Respect in Chicago—he thought “I can do that” and he did, in his own way in the Goodbread Alley section of Overtown. In following his interest, he would go to the library and look up the “masters”—Rembrandt and Picasso—in efforts to know and learn from their work. And, just to seal the case, there is nothing “outside of the establishment” about an artist whose work hangs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Outsider? Not Purvis