Intuit Art Museum Expands Self-Taught Art Collection with Key Gifts

Chicago's Intuit Art Museum (IAM) adds 61 works of self-taught art, including 47 from Jan Petry and 14 from Gordon W. Bailey. The museum is also moving to embrace self-taught terminology over outsider art for inclusivity.

The IAM (formerly referred to as Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art) was founded in Chicago in 1991 by a friendly group of fanatics and collection agencies with a simple goal of finding means to display work by self-taught artists. One of those very early advocates was Jan Petry (1939-2024), a Chicago marketing exec who loaded her home with outsider art. Petry bequeathed 47 works, some by confidential artists– consisting of an Odd Fellows carved wood team dating from 1880– and others by Emery Blagdon, James Castle, Ulysses Davis, Charles Dellschau, William Hawkins, Martín Ramírez, Günther Schützenhöfer and Leopold Strobl.

The Intuit Art Museum (IAM) in Chicago, one of the leading organizations in the United States committed to self-taught musicians, has actually obtained 2 crucial presents of art that will broaden its collection by 61 jobs.

Embracing ‘Self-Taught’ Art

Another deliberate shift in the museum’s advancement has been accepting the descriptor “self-taught” to describe work developed outside the conventional art globe and relocating far from the assortment of terms and classifications that have littered the area (like outsider, naïve and folk).

The IAM (previously known as Intuit: The Facility for Instinctive and Outsider Art) was founded in Chicago in 1991 by a pleasant team of aficionados and collectors with a simple goal of locating ways to exhibit job by self-taught artists. One of those very early supporters was Jan Petry (1939-2024), a Chicago marketing exec who loaded her home with outsider art. A 2nd present of 14 works comes from the Los Angeles-based scholar Gordon W. Bailey’s collection of African American art.

“Younger target markets and several artists, particularly those of colour, have truly pushed back on the outsider art term as being ‘othering’,” Kerr claims. “Intuit is being sensitive to that shift in language.”

Bailey’s present is additionally a possibility for IAM to fulfil one of its needs to bring even more females of colour into the collection. He permitted the gallery to choose specific items to strengthen its holdings in that area.

Impact of Key Donor Contributions

A second gift of 14 works comes from the Los Angeles-based scholar Gordon W. Bailey’s collection of African American art. Bailey, who has been gifting galleries with jobs from his collection over the years, has long been linked with IAM in spite of living on the West Coastline.

“Their presents, which bring brand-new artists’ tales into our galleries, enhance our capacity to offer and inspire the several neighborhoods who rely on our gallery as an area of exploration, link and creativity,” states Debra Kerr, the museum’s president and principal executive.She notes that the jobs given away by Petry will certainly be shown in the gallery named after her in the approaching event Life is an Art: The Collection of Jan Petry (9 April 2026-21 March 2027).

IAM’s Founding and Collection Growth

“Chicago is recognised as the starting point in the United States to embrace self-taught or outsider art,” Kerr states. A group of early fans and supporters in the field formed a network that consisted of Bailey– in 2001, he co-curated an exhibition at Intuit with Petry.

“Intuit did not established out to house a collection,” Kerr adds. In 1999, the museum bought the initial floor of its existing room and in 2004 the board voted to start gathering. The development completed last year tripled its room. The gallery has never ever had a purchases budget in itself, yet has actually had the ability to make acquisitions throughout the years with restricted presents of money for bringing certain works into the collection.