Roger Cardinal

(1940–2019)

Raw Vision is very sad to announce that great visiobnary writer and art hisorian Roger Cardinal passed away on November 1 at the age of 79. His revolutionary book Outsider Art, published in 1972 was the very first work in English on the subject and gave the world the name 'Outsider Art,' originally as an English equivalent to Dubuffet's art brut defnition.

In 1979 he co-curated "Outsiders" at London's Hayward Gallery with Victor Musgrave, presenting the great masters of outsider art, an exhibition that had a profound and lasting impact.

Roger Cardinal's influence in the establishment of an entire new field of contemporary art is immeasurable. The whole incredible rise of outsider art around the world in the last 30 years, especially in the anglosphere, stems from his book and writings. It has seen thousands of books and publications, hundreds of specialist libraries and collections, regular huge museum exhibitions in many cities and thousands of art gallery shows all around the world. He was the one who sparked the magic of outsider art.