>>3226601>formal learningOk, I'll play along for a moment.
One of the first skills encouraged on very young children is the ability to express themselves through mark making (and not injuring their peers). The notion of the outsider artist is a con usually. The stage at which the artist rejects the established norms is usually quite telling.
However, the motivation of the artist and the patron is questionable at best in most scenarios:
>Pope Situs IV "…promised a prize to the artist who would acquit himself best out of the team of four employed in the Sistine Chapel. While the true masters, Botticelli, Perugino and Ghirlandajo, gave of their best, the fourth, Cosimo Rosselli, knew that he was “poor in invention and weak in design”. Much to the amusement of his colleagues he plastered his fresco with gaudy colours, ultramarine and gold, to cover up its shortcomings. In the end the laugh was his, for the Pope, who knew nothing about art, not only awarded the tyro the prize, but even insisted on the others giving their frescoes a generous sprinkling of gold". The fact that Maier never dislayed or even printed any of her work hints at fetishism and compulsion in the act of taking a photograph. Looking at a negative and fantasizing about how it might look like.
The fine art world loves this shit. I'm sure on her death bed she wanted that box of negatives to be burnt on a bonefire but somehow it's now discussed here.
The fact she took some good photos is neither here nor there. Some faggot found a box and made a film.
