Art Brut

Art Brut has recently been enriched by new creators in Europe, Japan, China, Bali, Ghana and Brazil. Lucienne Peiry, the source of many discoveries, gives a large place to these new creators in this new edition, largely enriched and updated, of his reference work. It traces the history of Art Brut, in connection with the journey of its initiator, Jean Dubuffet, but also relates the development of Art Brut during the twenty recent years as well as its current challenges. The 500 works reproduced, mainly from the Dubuffet collection but also from large international collections, retain intact their power of fascination and their subversive freedom - which have inspired many contemporary artists like Georg Baselitz, Annette Messager, Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle, Hervé Di Rosa or Thomas Hirschorn. From the end of the 19th century, primitivism has was one of the responses to the search for otherness. But other expressions have also opened up new perspectives: folk art, children's drawings, "the art of madmen", automatism or graffiti. The ground was thus prepared for the "discovery" by Jean Dubuffet of disturbing works, brought together under the term of Art Brut. Two successful tours in Switzerland introduced him to Wolfli, Aloïse and Müller. Supported by André Breton and Jean Paulhan, Dubuffet founded in 1948 the Compagnie de l'Art Brut, intended to complete the collections, to to exhibit and to make an exegesis of it. The Collection of Art Brut finally finds its place in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1976, before experiencing an impact international. From then on, the Swiss institution spreads in a climate of excitement, while across the world of museums and collections open their doors to Art Brut. At the same time, it enters the market and makes increasingly notable incursions into the world of art contemporary.