William Edmondson (1874-1951) – Boxer, realized $785,000
There was a signal that Outsider Art is to come in from the cold at Christie’s in New York today when William Edmondson’s Boxer sold for $785,000. This is a new world record for Outsider Art and tripled the previous auction record for a work by the artist. There was a bidding war which lasted for nearly five minutes. This tightly curated sale of 50 lots included works across various media—sculpture, painting, works-on-paper, and gelatin silver print photographs—from preeminent Outsider artists, including James Castle, Martin Ramirez, William Edmonson, and Bill Traylor.
The term outsider art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut, a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture.
The inaugural various owner Outsider Art sale was held under the title Liberation Through Expression: Outsider and Vernacular Art.