Art brut

de Olaf Brenninkmeijer, Hans Looijen, Sarah Lombardi

Immediately after the Second World War the artist and collector Jean Dubuffet embarked on his search for new, pure and spontaneous works of art, remote from the established order. On his journey he visited psychiatric institutions and prisons, created a networks of intellectuals, poets, painters and collectors. During his various encounters he collected works which in his opinion were the proof that this art form, the one produced by people with no specific education to art, deserved a place in the art world. Established assumptions, academic views and standards must be cast aside in favour of a new, pure and spontaneous art. This exhibition provides a reconstruction of the basic ideas of Art Brut, with reference to the works assembled by Dubuffet. Why did he purchase some works but not others? Which criteria did he use when collection work, and what information did he collect? And what became of the artists whose work he collected for his Compagnie de l'Art Brut? Exhibition: Outsider Art Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (31.01.-25.08.2019)