Self-taught American artists are being featured in new, permanent installations across the country. Although most museums have traditionally exhibited colonial portraiture by itinerant artists and have hosted sporadic, but popular, survey exhibits, self-taught art is fresh material. Audience reaction has been favorable, as viewers respond positively to identifiable subject matter, bright colors and evocative images. Ironically, enthusiasts have often inadvertently diminished self-taught art by describing it as "childlike," "charming," or "naive." But these artists are not children; their subjects have specific meaning, not mere ornament, and the techniques they employed have their own distinctive purposes. Jane Kallir, daughter of Otto Kallir (champion of Grandma Moses), continues her father's support of self-taught artists when she writes, "dedicated artists can teach themselves to handle paint effectively and invent sophisticated techniques which, though different from those they might have learned in school, are more directly suited to their intentions." Some critics would even argue that all visual language, and perhaps all language, is "equally complex and affords no distinction between the 'primitive' and 'advanced' language."   Studies of self-taught portraiture can reveal information about perception and visual language. There have been many studies on perception, but few are directly related to art, and none to this type of art.  Around the turn of the century, American Pragmatists led by William James had much to say about practical responses to the environment. Gestalt psychologists adapted some of James' theories, testing them for quantitative responses. Current consciousness studies harken back to both groups. These new inquiries might well look to self-taught artists whose techniques visually confirm many of their pioneering theories. Self Taught artists' artistic choices emerge from a responsiveness to innate qualities of human perception. Their simple and direct intentions match the structures they choose. These artistic choices form a language, suitable to their own needs, and common to self-taught portraiture as a whole. Self-taught methods bring meaning to the art work just as effectively as more complicated schooled methods might.

One choice of the self-taught portraitist is to use background in a non-conventional manner. In traditional portraiture the back ground usually relates to the subject, complementing it in design, colors or the overall communicated message. In contrast a self-taught artist might treat the area around the subject as a blank space, with out perspective. The blank space might be shown as a blurred color field or a dark void. An example of this technique is Portrait of a Child with a Basket by an unknown Limner. In this painting, the girl approaches the viewer from the darkness that is the "background." Because she is a light object placed before this dark background, the eye must focus on her.

Gestalt psychology and more modern perceptual studies analyze this interaction between figure and ground, noting that generally, to ensure that the subject of the portrait will be remembered, there should be as little distraction from the background possible. The self-taught artist applies this theory, causing the figure in the portrait to dominate the viewer's eye.

This looming figure in a dark void is often in self-taught art and the lack of perspective only enhances the figure's importance to the whole scene. Surroundings and figures do not reinforce character in these portraits. The self-taught artist isolates the figure to show human vulnerability rather than depicting an individual in a social setting.
With the traditional horizon line gone and with very little distinction between background and foreground figures in a self-taught portrait fill the entire picture plane. In instances when the background is a complete void, the figure floats. When a reference point for the figure is indicated, such as a floor or ground, these points are compressed and foreshortened, distorting figure's placement.

The relationship between the intensified figure and the background void creates an unusual act of conventions for portraying what the artist perceives. Charles Piece, a member of the American Pragmatists, established a benchmark for examining problems dealing with individual perception. He noted in a letter to James, "the chief difficulty with immediate perception is how to account for the error of illusion. For example, if we see a stick partly in the water it appears bent at the surface of the water.... But more careful analysis shows us that it is the light-wave, not the stick, that is bent. The error is an error in judgment, not in perception."

Characteristics of self-taught art are checkerboard squares and patterns on carpets that do not recede as they would with traditional perspective techniques. Just as the self-taught artist confronts a rectangular grid and portrays it without perspective (showing it as rectangular, as the mind interprets it, rather than as trapezoidal, as the eye sees it), he handles this perceptual dilemma by showing the stick unbent. Showing what one "knows" and not what one actually sees, resolves compositional problems immediately, as the eye does not have to integrate the dimensional quality of the figure on its own or in relation to the scene.

Anatomical distortion is another device for increasing the viewer's attention on the figure. This distortion makes the portrayed figure seem to waver against the background. What initially seems solid and stiff, on second look, involves motion. The effects of instability and motion can be seen in Justin McCarthy's Glenn Cunningham, where the figure has anatomically incorrect legs that add as much instability as motion. The malformed hand nearly touches the leg to bring it closer to the exaggerated upper body for more weight and power. McCarthy draws attention to the dominant upper torso, which pulls the peripheral details, the limbs, up toward it, bending and twisting them on the way. Placing emphasis on the dominant upper torso rather than to details of the painting, makes the legs seem like bothersome body parts. Without substantial legs the figure leans out into the viewer's space, making the figure's presence all the more emphatic. The confusion between action and inaction balance and imbalance, and correctness and distortion causes a rhythm. The challenge to the self-taught artist is to provide a direct frontal composition with simple arrangements, without being so balanced that the dynamic tension is lost.   As much as Glenn Cuunningham is top heavy, John Serl's Untitled is weighted downward. The body squashes the legs, pulling them in to focus attention on the head. The imbalance between the light and dark cymbals adds cacophony to the otherwise symmetrical presentation. Expectations cause the viewer to be confused by the contrast between normal, static anatomy and deformed, moving anatomy.

In academic portraiture, the composition moves the eye: technical devices stabilize complex and otherwise confusing structures. The opposite is true for self-taught art, where imbalance is necessary so that flat, rigid figures are infused with energy. In selecting what to include in the work, the artists opt for items that perceptually interest the viewer, rather than a system of aesthetic ideals. Instead of presenting mastered skills such as perspective and compositional structure, the self-taught artist presents a perceptual analysis of figure/ground.  Formal structure similarly conforms to the emotional condition of the figures. Al- though artist J.A. Davis might have portrayed the characters of Mr. and Mrs. Eben Davis in a more balanced pose, he chose to portray them as they actually were, isolated from each other. The chairs in the portrait are skewed at different angles, putting the two figures on different planes. Both figures look nervous, as though they want to jump from their chairs and hide in separate rooms. The artist does not move the sitters close enough together to the figures to touch or include familiar elements such as children or a dog. As a result, it is implied that these relationships did not exist for the couple. The artist used only as much as he needed to show this couple as they really were, without reference to social standing, fidelity, love, and other cultural and personal connections would improve their relationship in the viewer's eye. This kind of composition specific to self-taught work, makes the art direct because it shows psychological truth rather than fiction.

A. Ellis's Mr. Tiffen of East Kingston, New Hampshire portrays how shape helps control and steer deformation to its best results. While the artist would like to do a third-quarters view, he doesn't want to give up the full-frontal effect. The body is turned while the shoulders stay square. They would have to be dislocated to bend any further forward, and yet this position helps push the body toward us. The triangular cadet shoulders are echoed in the collar, forming opposites to the triangular shirtfront. Triangles are important devices because their shape makes the round head seem that much more of a perfect circle. The fact that Tiffen has no neck only brings the shapes of the body and head closer together. In Prior's memorial portrait, Girl with a rose is a symbol both of death and betrothal to God--the vitality of presentation in the image reinforces the actual loss child. The hand is bent into the so our vision doesn't roam outward. thing, from the curtains that flank the to the half-hidden necklace, frames the. The fact that all of these items are; out in plain, unmodulated colors sets up shape without shading. The force of this ,s puts the figure before us on a single She is with us ha the painting as flesh flood, as a earthly creature, not a b or angel.  n academic artist uses composition to blend and balance a scene, which stresses the end product of the cognitive process; a self-taught artist starts with a pure visual sensation and tries to add the fewest design factors. 14 The flatness of these works helps reinforce this paradox of visual simplicity and intellectual risk. As with Mr. Tiffen and William Matthew Prior's Girl with a Rose, self-taught portraits are often said to be "flat" because of their lack of background perspective and because figures are not heavily shaded. However, most self-taught artists don't make a conscious choice to ignore perspective, reasoning that "the work of art itself exists not in order to hide but in order to make... visible." Painting in a flat style emphasizes shape over dimension. Self-taught artists provide as much visual information as is needed. If the artist knows that a man has two legs, then he will draw them both, although only one leg can be seen from the particular angle of observation. This principle of distortion is adopted even if the sitter's arms have to be too long, dislocated from their sockets, or extended at an improbable angle. Thus, tension results from the deformation. flatness clarifies the shape, and unity of tone and color further define the shape.  Heavily saturated color contrast creates tension. for example, a hat holds a head fixed while the bust pushes up against it. If the hat is saturated with overwhelmingly bright or dark color, and the figure's body is another dark opposing fierce, there is apparent pressure.

Ruth Whittier Shute's Portrait of Margaret Aflack is such an example. Ms. Aflack's hair is as solid and saturated in color as a helmet. It weighs against the head, holding it still, seeming to penetrate, putting pres- sure on this sitter's mind. The flat, bright colors block the painting into zones of tension. The hair, face, and dress all have immediate identity in their stark color and rely on our eyes to merge them reflexively into a whole.
Gestalt studies show the human mind can "gather" enormous amounts of information by organizing it into complete sets, without dwelling on detail. Ludwig Wittgenstein said, "I could convey an innumerable number of expressions by four strokes." 18 Reducing the incessant distraction of detail, and thereby simplifying the parts so that they quickly resolve as a whole, defines immediacy and how it is created. This simplification can only be effective when the portrait carries enough impact to hold the viewer.

One way the self-taught artist stops the flood of visual input to the viewer is to im- mobilize the facial gesture, "freeze framing" the person being portrayed. Rudolph Arnheim, in Toward a Psychology of Art, wrote, "in experimental work one notices that even with the object directly in front of their eyes subjects find it a hard and uncomfortable task to be aware of formal pattern. They constantly fall back upon the expressive characteristics."20 Just as the artists look for the most basic expression, American pragmatists like Pierce looked for "indecomposable concepts": not the demonstrations of fleeting or socially conventional forms, but the distilled, inimitable, universal gaze. To achieve this image by way of reduction is hard work that relics not on some abstract comes from the artist's rapport with the subject that develops over time and with the artist's persistence.

Horace Pippin, in painting his wife, had a history with the sitter that allowed him to know and to capture her no-nonsense look. He knew the subject well enough to catch her essence without needing to fill the painting with frivolous detail. Despite this fortitude, there remains a focus around the face which, bracketed by the glasses, is held tensely still. It may be the tight lips or the too-piercing stare of the eyes magnified by the glass, but Mrs. Pip-
pin doesn't seem too happy with her husband. He has found her in a skeptical mood or maybe in fearful anticipation of the final product.

Even in the most fixed portrait the flinch of recognition. That initial moment of action is also the self-taught working o ground. Poses that have this dynamic tension of people being "caught in the act" are far different from the composure of the academic model. The best way to catch the viewer's eye in a fleeting moment is by "giving them the eye." The ultra-luminous, too-large, wall or cross-eyed, squinting or lazy-eyed people seen in self-taught art command us with their gaze.22 Madam Walker by John Jordan not only has two huge eyes, but also a crystal third eye, which is actually a doorknob This found object relates, together with the soap, pumice stone, floor polishing brush, and washboard, to Madam Walker's earliest jobs as a domestic worker. It is interesting that, despite all the texture of the found objects, the eyes predominate The gold paint that covers the basic forms holds the objects together and flattens what looks here to be relief, but what would become full sculpture with a bit more depth. The piece integrates as a whole and becomes, as Gestalt psychology holds, more than the sum of its parts. The background knowledge Jordan wants to give us is that Madam Walker moved beyond her humble beginnings to become America's first African American millionaires. (She invented the first hair straightening products.) David Secon's Marrying Nature infuses facial features with shells and other organic material from the beach. Like our first evolutionary crawl from the sea, this creature regresses back to when man was part snail, fiddler crab, and clam. His higher faculties seem to point out the dilemma between human form and consciousness and organic form and base perception. We arise from the primal ooze and return to the organic source in death. This figure seems to understand that true incorporation in nature means a loss of personal identity, a return to undifferentiated flotsam and jetsam. The dense, seething amalgamation in the interior of the face is so uniformly mixed that it becomes flat. We rely on the outline to immately washed away In the waves of time.

Self-taught artists, by changing perceptions, give viewers a new view of humanity. Viewers lose sight of essential human characteristics in academic art because of the design elements that work together to form spatial illusion. Complex compositions distract us because they do not confirm to the natural laws of human perception. By staying closer to these perceptions, self-taught artists try to reveal psychological truths. Their imagery is unmediated by philosophy, aesthetics, or the politics of the art world. They are pragmatists who demonstrate their pure vision, sense of structure, and intrinsic understanding of portraiture and human beings.