Visionary Art という言葉がいつごろからアメリカで使われ始めたのか?一つの手がかりとして、Paul Laffoleyが1967年に参加したニューヨークの展覧会"The Visionaries"にあるかもしれないという情報を得ました。 http://www.berkshirefinearts.com/?page=article&article_id=926&catID=3 この文面から私が考えたことは、当時のオーガナイザー Charles Giulianoが Paul Laffoleyのようにドラッグと関係のないアーティストにはPsychedelicという言葉はふさわしくないと考え、Visionaryという言葉を採用したのかもしれないということです。
以下Charles Giulianoの述懐の引用です。
‘ In 1967 I organized an exhibition "The Visionaries" for the East Hampton Gallery in New York. The project was the basis for the Masters and Houston book for Grove Press "Psychedelic Art." At the time I argued in vain for the term Visionary Art which implied an art of the spirit independent of hallucinogenic drugs like LSD. Had I known of Laffoley's work I would surely have included it. Significantly, to the best of my knowledge, Paul has never taken drugs. Unlike the work of Alex Grey, who I also knew and wrote about, there is no psychedelic element in Laffoley's paintings. It was an important point utterly lost on the team of DeCordova curators.’
Q: Is your art part of an art movement? What is visionary art?
あなたのアートはムーブメントの一部なんでしょうか。ヴィジョナリーアートとは何ですか?
A: I don't consider my art to be anything other than personal, but I have published and shown with artists of a kindred spirit. We first used the term visionary art in the late 60s and early 70s to denote a psychedelic west coast fantasy art movement. It has become generally applied to many kinds of outsider art now. usually with a spiritual folk art quality... To me it refers to the metaphysical art that arises from the collective unconscious.