Accidental Genius at the Milwaukee Art Museum

© Rosemarie Koczy

While attending the Accidental Genius exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum, there were many amazing works of art created by individuals that did not intend to show their work. The pieces that struck me the most were Rosemarie Koczy's intricate ink drawings, which were taken from her sketch book. She created these pieces with an ink pen, quite the task considering the complexity of the drawings. Koczy's survived two concentration camps during the Holocaust at a young age, which definitely impacted her entire future and her art work.

"We worked in the fields every day. I saw the killing, the shavings, the bleachings, the torture and hunger, the cold, typhus, tuberculosis. Death was all around!"

~ Rosemarie Koczy

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These individuals that did not intend to share their art with the public eye are called "outside artists". They have not received professional training and sometimes do not have a specific message to send out into the world. They create to create. "I've heard it being used to describe people who are outside mainstream culture as well; people with little contact to the mainstream cultural and people with extreme psychological problems".