Art brut

Art Brut stands out as one of the most singular and radical movements in the history of modern art, designating creations produced outside of any academic training or conventional cultural conditioning. Coined by Jean Dubuffet in the 1940s, the term encompasses the works of self-taught artists, individuals confined to psychiatric institutions, prisoners, and social outcasts, whose artistic practice completely escapes the traditional circuits of art and its codes of legitimation.

Dubuffet, fascinated by this raw creativity uncontaminated by dominant culture, assembled a considerable collection, now housed at the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, laying the groundwork for the gradual institutional recognition of these long-ignored practices.

Figures like Adolf Wölfli, whose obsessively dense graphic compositions span thousands of pages, Aloïse Corbaz with her colorful and lyrical worlds, and Henry Darger with his stunningly expansive illustrated stories, exemplify the diversity and power of a creative movement that draws upon the deepest resources of the individual imagination.

Far from being a marginal phenomenon, Art Brut has profoundly influenced numerous modern and contemporary artists, from Dubuffet himself to Jean-Michel Basquiat, who were drawn to this creative energy freed from all formal constraints.

On Artsper, this selection brings together works that bear witness to the richness and singularity of this world, encompassing expressive power, formal freedom, and the exploration of the most intimate territories of the human imagination.