Art Brut in America
Art Brut in America
Art Brut in America
INDEXES ON
PAGES 36 & 37
Plchinle gnsthrs vitrs-he [sic] (Punchinello gangsters vitrs-he) by Gaston Duf (Gaston
Dufour) (19201966), Saint-Andr-lez-Lille Psychiatric Hospital, France, 1949. Colored pencil on
drawing paper; 27 by 197/8 inches.
Arnaud Conne photo
Untitled by Jean Mar (Jean Marchand) (circa 18281911), Bel-Air Clinic, Chne-Bourg,
Switzerland, circa 1905. Newsprint, blue paper, plant fiber and white and black string;
35/8 by 2 inches.
Caroline Smyrliadis photo
Composition symbolique, amour pour lhumanit (Symbolic composition, love for humanity) by Augustin Lesage (18761954), Pasde-Calais, France, 1932. Oil on canvas; 38 by
27 inches.
Claude Bornand photo
Baptme de Pie XII / Un Baiser laviateur Le Pape Pie XII monnayeur et son Sphinx sur le sige (Baptism of Pius XII / A kiss to the aviator
Pope Pius XII counterfeiter and his Sphinx on the seat) by Alose
Corbaz (18861964), De La Rosire Psychiatric Hospital, Gimel, Switzerland, circa 1955. Colored pencil on a sheet of paper folded in the middle,
double-sided; 59 by 393/8 inches.
Olivier Laffely photo
Untitled by Guillaume Pujolle (18931971), Toulouse Psychiatric Hospital, France, 1938. Watercolor, ink and colored pencil on paper; 113/8 by
87/8 inches.
Amlie Blanc photo
grotesque works, automatically. Then something transpires; the impulse recedes. They snap out of their
personae, sometimes cease making art altogether. But
their works remain as a testament and puzzle. Further, and this is the point, the art does not really stop.
It just stops being made where we can see it.
Art Brut does not express otherness or indulge in
nostalgia for a lost Eden. What it offers is a glimpse
into an archetypal impulse buried deep within, inside
all of us, one we carry everywhere, at all times, an impulse hard to recognize, still harder to tap, impossible
to maintain, an impulse that is nevertheless essential
to our sense of ourselves as a species. On some conscious, or unconscious, level, we are all always making
art.
See Art Brut in America: The Incursion of Jean
Dubuffet at the American Folk Art Museum. Look at
your doodles. Look.
Jim Balestrieri is the director of J.N. Bartfield Galleries
in New York City. A playwright and author, he frequently
writes about the arts.
Petit dossier no. 10 (Little folder no. 10) by
Jeanne Tripier (18691944), Maison Blanche
Psychiatric Hospital, Neuilly-sur-Marne, France
(circa 19351939). Ink, varnish, and sugar on paper; page size between 85/8 by 6 inches and 135/8
by 85/8 inches. Jean-Marie Almonte and Michael Legentil photo
All works illustrated are from the Collection de
lArt Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland.