The Beautiful, the Art Brut and the Merchant

An ocean separates aesthetic beauty and absolute originality. Emerging from the depths, the never-seen is associated with disturbing forms which, by upsetting our landmarks, also shake our certainties. Of the order of appearance, this unknown translates an unequaled otherness, at the antipodes of conventions and tastes shared by the majority. As industrial society was spreading in Europe, in parallel with the growing interest of the avant-gardes in primitive, naive arts and children's drawings, the productions of the insane, prisoners, isolated autodidacts or spiritualists gradually attracted attention of graduates of the Faculty, joined by some fine translators of the human soul, artists and poets. In the aftermath of the Second World War, The visual artist Jean Dubuffet called these explosive blooms "Art Brut". distinguishing them within a collection that he built up and enriched over the years At the same time, he intended to protect them and at the same time remove them from a cultural world mimetic, as well as to the art market. Since then, Art Brut, including under other names, has spread to all continents. The family that compose its disconcerting, even disturbing and unrelated creators, has expanded to include the disabled and the elderly. With varying degrees of success, creative workshops have opened their doors for them. Cousins ​​and allies draw inspiration from their achievements and draw energy from them necessary for the affirmation of their own path, when they do not undergo simply their influence. Some private collections give them a place of choice. Museums acquire and exhibit their works, which find also place in major international fairs. Several galleries in Europe and in the United States have made it their specialty. It is in Strasbourg, in the intersection of roads, where the Ship of Fools found a home port, that one of them was born. In the mid-1990s, Jean-Pierre Ritsch-Fisch, its founder, was forced to close the family business fur. A return to his teenage loves: the world of art and its strong sensations, imposes itself on him. Then begins his quest for the impossible: unearth works by originals, outsiders or even historical figures of Art Brut, and apply in his choices the same requirement that he imposed on himself, still young, for its first collection devoted to Narrative Figuration. Then, he casts off and sets off to meet European audiences and Americans. Beginning in the manner of a tale, then sometimes resembling a adventure novel, sometimes an investigation, Le Beau, L'Art Brut and le Marchand relates this unique journey.