1

2

Essay by Déborah Couette and Céline Delavaux .. 3

Diagram of Research and Investigations ............... 25

Diagram of Networks ......................................... 26

Biographies of Selected Artists ............................ 27

Art Brut Timeline ................................................. 32

Exhibition Lists .................................................... 34

Notes ................................................................ 35

Ingredients

Jean DubuffetPortrait de Michel Tapié1946(courtesy of Galerie 1900-2000, Paris)

What interests me is not cake, it’s bread. Jean Dubuffet, 1947 I In October 1947, the prestigious Galerie René Drouin on Place Vendôme hosted an exhibition of portraits by a certain Monsieur Jean Dubuffet, peintre. One month later, a curious installation of anonymous lava and basalt sculptures heralded the opening of Le Foyer de l’Art Brut in the basement of the very same gallery. To all outward appearances, these two events were unrelated. In reality, a web of invisible threads tied them together, not least of all the personality of their maker, Jean Dubuffet. In the early 1940s, Dubuffet had ended a lucrative career as a wine merchant to devote himself entirely to art. He had become fasci-nated by what he described as art brut. The artist sought to prove that art existed beyond the confines of museums and galleries, and outside the scope of art’s academies and history. He claimed that this form of production contains, like raw fruit, the special vitamins which nourish and enrich us. These were the supplements, he be-lieved, which only existed in raw art, uncontaminated by culture. Dubuffet set off to find his ingredients. His journey began with tribal art, the popular arts, with children’s drawings and so-called art of the insane. There were also drawings and paintings by mediums. His was not the first fascination with such material. The search for an artistic otherness had already inspired the early 20th century’s avant-garde. Yet their attempts at regeneration had been fictional. The quest for art brut allowed Dubuffet to start the process anew, sidestep the mainstream and fortify his own personal practice.

LE FOYER DE L’ART BRUTAN UNDERGROUND KITCHEN FOR UNPROCESSED ART

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For this new recipe, Dubuffet needed allies. He recruited them from the artistic and literary vanguard, many of whose portraits he had painted for his 1947 show. The network revolved around the writer, Jean Paulhan, an influential publisher who worked at Gallimard and had helped Dubuffet find his dealer, René Drouin. It was Drouin who gave art brut its first headquarters, down in the basement of his gallery; and it was here, in November 1947, that Dubuffet assembled the objects and documents which he had collected over the previous years. II The recesses of Le Foyer de l’Art Brut revealed the intensity of Dubuffet’s investigations. Carried out contemporaneously with his own artistic output, this impressive research had unearthed much in the private gardens of writers, artists, art dealers and psychiatrists. Charles Ratton, a dealer in what was then labelled as primitive art, introduced Dubuffet to a group of bearded figurines which had been carved from milestones by an anonymous hand. Originally collected by Joseph-Oscar Müller, these funny little statues were nicknamed Les Barbus Müller. They would go on to form the first ex-hibition at Le Foyer de l’Art Brut. The poet and artist Henri Michaux then helped Dubuffet acquire children’s drawings directly from their teachers. Marionnettes de la ville et de la campagne, presented at Drouin in 1944 by the critic Michel Tapié, was Dubuffet’s inaugu-ral homage to their awkward inventiveness. In response, Drouin’s gallery was inundated with hate mail.

In his earliest texts, published by Gaston Gallimard in 1946, Dubuffet proclaimed a taste for the popular, the ordinary and the commonplace. Unsurprisingly, he sharpened his eye on graffiti and

Essay

Les Barbus Mülleruntitledc 1930-40

76

Auguste Forestieruntitled date unknown

tattoos, as had the photographers Brassaï and Robert Doisneau before him, and on artworks made by prison inmates, upon the ad-vice of the eminent anthropologist and visitor to the foyer, Claude Lévi-Strauss. With Anatole Jakovsky, a critic and collector of naïve art, Dubuffet went in search of artwork by les fous. It was thanks to the poet Paul Eluard, who had taken refuge in the Saint-Alban Hospital during the war, that Dubuffet discovered the astonishing toy-maker Auguste Forestier. Sectioned for derailing a passenger train, Forestier was now being collected by the likes of Pablo Picasso. Indeed, interest in what might be called asylum art was nothing new. In 1924 Dubuffet had found a copy of Bildnerei der Geistkranken by the psychiatrist and art historian Dr Hans Prinzhorn: an extraordinary album of hos-pitalised art-making, which the artist Max Ernst circulated amongst his fellow Surrealists. In July 1945, Dubuffet embarked on a voyage to Switzerland with his friend Paulhan and the modernist pioneer, Le Corbusier. The trip was to become legend in the annals of art brut. He marvelled at the finger paintings of the architect’s cousin, Louis Soutter, which had been reproduced in the Surrealist journal Minotaure in 1936. He met Eugène Pittard, the director of the Ethnographic Museum in Geneva, who introduced him to the watercolours of Congolese painter Albert Lubaki, exhibited in Paris as early as 1929. There were also drawings by mediumistic artist Hélène Smith, who had explored Hinduism and the planet Mars under the guidance of the writer Victor Hugo.

Dubuffet visited a number of Swiss psychiatric collections, notably that of Dr Charles Ladame, which would later be exhibited at Le Foyer de l’Art Brut. Yet it was Adolf Wölfli, the patient recognised

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as an artist by Dr Walter Morgenthaler in Ein Geisteskranken als Künstler in 1921, who was to become the leading light of art brut. His monumental autobiography was illustrated with detailed pencil drawings, some up to two metres in size, and contextualised by impossible stories of intra- and extra-terrestrial conquest. Back in France, Dubuffet met with Dr Gaston Ferdière, the celebrated psychiatrist of the poet Antonin Artaud. Ferdière showed him the pharmaceutical watercolours of Guillaume Pujolle and the hallucina-tory figurations of Marguerite Burnat-Provins. These productions delighted Dubuffet, for they corresponded with his subversive ideas on art. His plan was now to disseminate his re-search and he signed a contract with his editor, Gaston Gallimard, for a series entitled Les Cahiers de l’Art Brut. In 1947 Gallimard would renege on his agreement. It was the first in a long series of disappointments. III Dubuffet turned to his gallerist, René Drouin. His proposal, Le Foyer de l’Art Brut, would be a response to the failure of Les Cahiers de l’Art Brut. Dubuffet was all too aware that he needed support. The foyer would be his refuge, a hideaway where his discoveries and ideas about art brut could be presented and preserved. In French, the word foyer implies a hearth, a source of energy. Dubuffet may have hoped that the heatwaves generated by art brut would permeate the ground floor and warm its prestigious visitors. In the years after the war, Galerie René Drouin had gained a repu-tation as a centre for cutting-edge culture. Drouin had premiered the pioneers of abstraction, Wassily Kandinsky and Robert and Sonia Delaunay, and curated exhibitions of l’art informel, a collective

Essay

Adolf Wölfliuntitledc 1920

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Augustin LesageComposition Symboliquec 1932

Miguel Hernandezuntitled1947

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Pascal Désir Maisonneuveuntitled (Ubu Roi)1925

term coined by Michel Tapié for the work of Jean Fautrier, Wols and Jean Dubuffet. Tapié would go on to become a central character in the history of art brut. From the outset, this art critic and jazz man was drawn to the then-scandalous paintings of Jean Dubuffet. His features were immor-talised in Dubuffet’s portrait gallery. He was not only a writer, but a musician, a fact which certainly did not displease the artist, having just completed his painting, Jazz Band. Moreover, this distant cousin of the painter Toulouse-Lautrec was just as interested in self-taught production as Dubuffet. It was Tapié who had discovered the cement medallions and carica-tures of Henri Salingardes, an innkeeper and antiques dealer in the South of France. It was also Tapié who had brought to light the wood-carved tools of a 70-year old poacher and itinerant called Xavier Par-guey. Together, the pair visited an exhibition of tableaux merveilleux by the healer and painter Fleury-Joseph Crépin, who then introduced Dubuffet to his associate Augustin Lesage, the medium whose per-formative spirit-paintings had published in Minotaure in 1933. On the 17th November 1947, two days after the inauguration of Le Foyer de l’Art Brut, Dubuffet handed the keys to Tapié, gave him a list of proposed exhibits, among them Dr Ladame’s collection, and went off to the Algerian Sahara in search of a different kind of exoticism.

IV Tapié took his new role as director seriously. With the backing of Drouin, he oversaw a series of publications which accompanied his temporary displays.

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Miguel Hernandez was a Spanish war veteran living in Montmartre, whose paintings harked back to his colourful past. Jan Krizek was a Czech émigré and trained artist, whose simple stone sculptures were introduced to Tapié by the cubist, Honorio Condoy. Pierre Giraud, nicknamed l’enchanteur Limousin, was a draughtsman and fabrica-tor, whose poet brother was Tapié’s assistant and had introduced Dubuffet to tattoos. Yet Le Foyer de l’Art Brut seemed different. It had become a rendez-vous, where artworks could be bought and sold. That seemed a long way from Dubuffet’s original conceit. Upon his return, Dubuffet criticised Tapié’s slapdash performance. He accused him of being trop brouillon et trop fou, of exposing works which were neither inventive nor counter-cultural enough to conform to art brut. Worst of all, Tapié had been duped. Rob-ert Véreux was the invention of Dr Robert Forestier, a physician, collector and amateur painter, who had submitted a series of naive dreamscapes pretending to be the work of an art brut artist. The creator of art brut took back the reins. Dubuffet’s formative displays included treasures from the collection: the delicate pastel romances of Aloïse Corbaz, the embroideries of hospitalised medi-um Jeanne Tripier and the influential imaginings of Heinrich Anton Müller. Yet Dubuffet also exhibited an art brut hoax. Les Statues de silex de M Juva was an ensemble of pre-historic flintstone artefacts - includ-ing tools, arrows, and the faces of people and animals - from a pseudo-sanctuary in the suburbs of Paris. Juva was actually Antonin Alfred Juritzky, a former Austrian prince, who had developed his passion for early human history into a formal Neolithic fantasy. Ju-va’s anthromorphic stones had duped the scientific community of the time and had even caught the attention of André Breton, the pope

Essay

Fleury-Joseph Crépinuntitled (No 58, Architecture)1940

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Aloïse CorbazLoge à Pie XIdate unknown

Louis SoutterMadone Van der Veydendate unknown

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Juvauntitledc 1940

of Surrealism. But Dubuffet was not fooled. For him, Juva was yet another way for him to attack art history at its roots, and to reveal how art history was constructed of arbitrary fictions. V If Dubuffet ever doubted that he could break bread with Breton, he was convinced after they met in 1948. Breton had long been fascinated by alternative formats. Dubuffet needed a formidable ally. His basement installation was not shining as brightly as he had imagined. Visitors should have been struck by an evidentiary bolt of lightning. The raw production, exemplary creativity and unedited invention was meant to reveal the impotence of l’art culturel - the official art which had been heated and re-heated until it was devoid of nutritional value. In other words, people should have been experi-encing a revelation. Instead, Le Foyer de l’Art Brut was perceived as an oddity: a mildly amusing space, with the feel of a flea market, but not a venue for a radical new discourse on art. With Breton as his partner-in-crime, Dubuffet returned to his earliest construct: to publish a definitive study of art brut. In the spirit of the pre-war artists of Der Blaue Reiter, the pair conspired to edit an al-manac for which Breton wrote his famous 1948 essay: L’art des fous, la clé des champs. The project would also contain reference to some of Breton’s favoured authors, like the revered Haitian feather-painter, Hector Hyppolite, and Adalbert Trillhaase, the not-so-naïve German artist feted by Otto Dix.

Yet L’Almanach de l’Art Brut was not their only ambitious project together. It was the first in a series of activities proposed through a new organisation: La Compagnie de l’Art Brut. Founder members included Jean Paulhan, Michel Tapié, Charles Ratton, and the writer

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and art dealer, Henri-Pierre Roché. Dubuffet believed this team would maintain a position for art brut which was undiluted, uncompromised and strictly non-commercial. A legal structure seemed appropriate for a collection which had grown so exponentially. For example, through Breton and the artist André Lhote, Dubuffet had acquired some shell-masks by satirist and brocanteur, Pascal-Désir Maisonneuve. They, and all the other works, needed to be protected. A new organisation demanded a new command centre. Le Foyer de l’Art Brut decamped from its underground home at Galerie René Drouin for an equally high-profile location: a pavilion loaned by Gas-ton Gallimard and located next to la Pléiade. From September 1948 to June 1949, Dubuffet entrusted the day-to-day running not to a critic, but to an artist. Slavko Kopač was a little-known Croatian painter who had recently moved to France. An admirer of Dubuffet, he would go on to assist the older artist in mounting ten exhibitions at the foyer, including the remarkable carvings of a Spanish-born cork-maker, Joaquim Vicens Gironella. Yet despite these numerous and varied displays, despite the accom-panying booklets edited by La Compagnie de l’Art Brut, despite the constant resistance to the cultural mainstream, Le Foyer de l’Art Brut remained at a dead-end: invisible and unknown to the public at large. VI Dubuffet did not see his new foyer as being tied to one location. He envisioned exhibitions at home and abroad, projects which would disperse his idea on art brut. In October 1949 he returned for a brief sojourn at Galerie René Drouin. This time the installation occupied the entire ground floor, with over 200 works and 63 makers displayed in broad daylight.

Essay

Joaquim Vicens Gironellauntitledc 1945

2322

Gaston Chaissacuntitled1944

Amongst the plethora of objects on view were statuettes made of wood and coal by Gaston Chaissac, a self-taught painter and poet long celebrated by Jean Paulhan et Raymond Queneau. There were also a selection obsessive faces and detailed botanies by the British doodler, Scottie Wilson, brought to Dubuffet’s attention by the Surre-alists Roland Penrose and ELT Mesens. Dubuffet was confident he would set the art world ablaze. He penned a text whose title could not have been clearer, and which would go on to become his manifesto: L’Art brut preferé aux arts culturels. Dubuffet’s subversive intent only encouraged Drouin, whose gallery had now become an experimental forum and a venue for debate. Together, they welcomed artists like Paul Klee, Jacques Villon, Gino Severini, Raoul Ubac, Hans Hartung and Clovis Trouille. Yet despite the fanfare, the recipe failed to impress. The media fell silent. The few fans there were, seemed not to understand the nature of this revolu-tion. Even André Breton appeared more committed to his Surrealist uprising than to Jean Dubuffet’s art brut. It was a brave but doomed attempt. The foyer returned quietly to its home at Pavilion Gallimard. Dubuffet and his wife Lili worked togeth-er and alone to give it some permanence. From that day on, until its closure in 1951, the collection would be presented without a formal exhibition schedule. It seemed like a slow-down, but the truth was more complex. If art brut was an engine for Dubuffet’s own artistic practice, it also took up too much of his time. The artist had simply decided to concentrate on his own oeuvre.There was, however, to be one final moment. In January 1951, Dubuffet organised an exhibition of five artists in northern France. To coincide with this modest presentation, he delivered one of his most controversial speeches: Honneur aux valeurs sauvages. In it, he at-

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tacked the values of Western culture and criticised its misconception of madness. People equated art brut with art of the insane, even Breton himself. The surrealist had gone so far as to declare art brut confusing and redundant. For him, art of the insane was a category in itself, and one whose geography had been thoroughly mapped. Dubuffet countered: no criterion ... justifies the kind of discrimina-tion which labels some art as sane and other art as pathological. The disagreement marked a final rupture between the two men and L’Almanach de l’Art Brut would never to see the light of day. With the pavilion no longer suitable to contain the collection, and with the lack of commitment shown by too many phantom members of La Compagnie de l’Art Brut, Dubuffet closed down the association and brought Le Foyer de l’Art Brut to an end. In the coming months, Dubuffet would move himself and the collec-tion to America, where his professional career as an artist finally took root. Le Foyer de l’Art Brut was now a footnote in art history. Yet its energy would continue to radiate, thanks to its contrary and visionary advocate, a man who would always fight for its discover-ies, insights and truth.

Essay Research

Only in art brut can we find the natural and normal processes involved in the creation of art - and in their purest and most

elemental state.

Jean Dubuffet, 1951

2726

LES BARBUS MÜLLER

GASTON CHAISSAC

FLEURY-JOSEPH CRÉPIN

ALOÏSE CORBAZ

AUGUSTE FORESTIER

PIERRE GIRAUD

MIGUEL HERNANDEZ

JUVA

AUGUSTIN LESAGE

PASCAL-DÉSIR MAISONNEUVE

LOUIS SOUTTER

ADALBERT TRILLHAASE

SCOTTIE WILSON

ADOLF WÖLFLI

André Breton, philosopher/poet[Robert & Sonia Delaunay, artists]

[Max Jacob, artist/critic]Joseph-Oscar Müller, collector

Jean Paulhan, editor/writerCharles Ratton, gallerist

Henri-Pierre Roché, writerMichel Tapié, critic/musician

Tristan Tzara, artist/poet

Robert Doisneau, photographerOtto Freundlich, artistAlbert Gleizes, artist

Anatole Jakovsky, collector/criticAsger Jorn, artist

André Lhote, artist/criticAime Maeght, gallerist

Jean Paulhan, editor/writerMichel Ragon, critic/historian

Victor Brauner, artistAndré Breton, philosopher/poet

Robert Doisneau, photographerRobert Giraud, poet/writer

Vicomtesse de Gaigneron, galleristMichel Tapié, critic/musician

André Breton, philosopher/poetIsamu Noguchi, designer

Michel Tapié, critic/musician

André Breton, philosopher/poetJean Meyer, patron/spiritualist

Eugène Osty, patron/spiritualist

André Breton, philosopher/poetAndré Lhote, artist/critic

Benjamin Péret, authorJacques Senné, collector

René Auberjonois, artistLe Corbusier, architectHerman Hesse, writer

Jean Giono, writer

Otto Dix, artistOtto Pankok, artist

André Breton, philosopher/poetELT Mesens, artist/gallerist

Roland Penrose, artist/galleristPablo Picasso, artist

André Breton, philosopher/poetCarl Gustav Jung, author/psychotherapist

Dr Walter Morgenthaler, psychiatrist

Dr Alfred Bader, collectorSlavko Kopač, artist

Paul Éluard, poetDr Gaston Ferdière, poet/psychiatrist

Dora Maar, artistPablo Picasso, artist

Gérard Vuillamy, artistRaymond Queneau, poetTristan Tzara, artist/poet

Networks Biographies

Les Barbus Müller(dates unknown, France)Named after the eponymous Swiss collector Josef Müller, Les Barbus Müller refer to a group of volcanic stone carvings owned by Jean Dubuffet, André Breton and Tristan Tzara. These anonymous bearded figures inauguratedle Foyer de l’Art Brut and were considered to be among its most important finds. It is generally considered that there were several authors of these neo-pagan works which likely had some original ritual use.

Marguerite Burnat-Provins(1872-1952, France)A lifetime aesthete, artist and poet, Burnat-Provins was inspired by a unprovoked series of intense imaginings, first experienced in Egypt during an episode of ty-phoid. From 1914 on, she realised these ames parasitaires in a single body of work - Ma Ville - com-prised of some 3,000 drawings of psychic hallucinations, with the subjects often dictating not only their colour and form, but a biog-raphy which would appear on the back of each work.

Gaston Chaissac(1910-1964, France)Chaissac was a farmer, handyman and artist who spent much of his life in rural France. His writing attracted the attention of Jean Paulhan and Raymond Queneau. He went on to produce a sub-stantial body of visual material, including drawings, paintings and sculptures. Chaissac saw himself as a modern folk artist and this is what perhaps led to a rift with Dubuffet, who considered the production too informed simply to be defined as art brut. Aloïse Corbaz(1886-1964, France)The sensual drawings, paintings and murals of the ubiquitous Corbaz were brought to Jean Dubuffet’s attention by Jacque-line Porret-Forel, a young doctor at a Swiss psychiatric clinic. The oeuvre speaks of a mysterious and seemingly autobiographi-cal love-affair, often in the form of books or folded sheets, and features unusual materials such as petals and packaging, delicately sewn into the artwork to create a unique form of collage.

2928 Biographies

Fleury-Joseph Crépin1875–1948, FranceCrépin was a 63-year-old Spiritualist who, like his mentor Victor Simon, had initiated an art practice for the purposes of divine healing. This former plumber claimed that his gridded poin-tillist architectures were guided by heavenly forces and would collectively foster world peace. They achieved their goal when the war ended in 1945. Their maker died just three years later, having produced over 350 paintings.

Auguste Forestier(1887-1958, France)Auguste Forestier began a playful artistic practice after being sec-tioned at the Saint-Alban Hospital for apparently derailing a passen-ger train. There, his modest draw-ings developed into ambitious three dimensional contructs. Using discarded materials, he carved furniture and toys for friends and visitors. Word spread and the soldiers and medallions, mythic bestiary and mighty naval vessels were subsequently snapped up by Pablo Picasso and the Surrealists.

Joaquim Vicens Gironella(1911-1997, Spain)The Catalonian-born Gironella grew up in a family of cork-mak-ers and spent much of his adult life engaged in the profession. After serving in the Spanish Civil War, he began to carve increas-ingly complex reliefs from the material, drawing his ideas from literature, myth and religion. Gi-ronella believed that the organic shape of cork should decide his imagery, an approach which seemed to influence Dubuffet’s own figurative oeuvre.

Miguel Hernandez(1893-1957, Spain)The swirling dreamscapes of this elusive painter were first discov-ered in a Parisian gallery by art critic Michel Tapié. Hernández was a peasant-born anarchist from Spain, whose formative years in Brazil had helped fashionhis radical socialist stance. After a lifetime of frontline activism, Hernández retired to Paris and dedicated himself to painting the memories of his youth and the beloved wife he had lost during their wartime struggles.

Biographies

Hector Hyppolite(1894–1948, Haiti)By trade a shoe-maker and house-painter, Hector Hyppolite was a third-generation voodoo priest - or Houngan - whose chicken-feather paintings of island spirits and rituals were spotted by Dewitt Peters, the American wa-tercolourist who ran Haiti’s only art studio. Fêted and promoted by the likes of André Breton and the Cuban artist Wilfredo Lam, Hyppolite’ s practice soon blos-somed and legend of the Haitian Matisse spread across Europe and America.

Juva (Prince Antonin Juritzky)(1887-1961, Austria)Juva was the nom de plume of a lapsed nobleman and academic, who was also an obsessive collec-tor of curiously-shaped flint stones. The so-called artist presented them as evidence of anthropomorphic pre-cultural making and designed special wooden stands to reveal their meaning via a specific orientation. Although Juva did not fit the archetype of an anti-cultural artist, he remained one of the rar-est and highly prized discoveries in art brut.

Pascal-Désir Maisonneuve(1863-1934, France)Pascal-Désir Maisonneuve was a mosaicist and antiquaire, whose immaculate and satirical shell assemblages formed a caricature cast of royal, political and literary elites. Championed by his friend and collector, the French artist André Lhote, Maisonneuve’s rare and humourous masks would eventually come to symbolise the very essence of La Collection de l’Art Brut.

Augustin Lesage1876-1954, FranceLike his friend, Fleury-Joseph Crépin, Lesage was a healer who was guided by voices to paint the beyond. Although first conceived in private, this former coal miner’s practice developed into a series of public performances. The resulting artworks, some monumental in scale, were littered with overt mystical, religious and historical references, intended to convert the uninitiated and reveal the truth.

3130 Biographies

Louis Soutter(1871–1942, France)Trained in architecture, like his cousin Le Corbusier, Soutter was a professional musican, art educator and polymath, whose increasingly eccentric behaviour led to enforced hospitalisation. In the 1920s Soutter initiated a dense, cross-hatched oeuvre, sometimes filling the margins of published volumes. Following the onset of arthritis, he resorted to finger-painting. These haunted and quasi-religious figures are his most widely known works today.

Adalbert Trillhaase(1858-1936, Germany)Infamous for his inclusion in the Nazi’s Entartete Kunst exhibition of 1937, Trillhaase was a wealthy merchant whose the larger-than-life legend was immortalised by his friend, the painter Otto Dix. Trillhaase’s love of bible and myth translated into his own late-life oeuvre of flattened figures and foreshortened perspectives, more nuanced than those of his so-called naive peers. Trillhaase went on to become a member of Der Blaue Reiter artist group.

Scottie Wilson(1888–1972, Britain)Perhaps it was a nervous tic which inspired the prolific morality scrib-blings of Scottie Wilson, the pen name of Jewish emigre and for-mer thrift store owner, Louis Free-man. His fountain pens sprung to life in middle age and made their devoutly non-commercial owner famous. Lionised by George Mel-ly, the British surrealists and Pablo Picasso, this humble doodler was eventually persuaded to exhibit and sell his artworks at Arcade Gallery and Gimpel Fils.

Adolf Wölfli(1864-1930, Switzerland)The prolific and narcissistic Wölfli is often considered the patron saint of art brut. Jean Dubuffet discovered his work on an investi-gative trip to Switzerland, where he met with Dr Walter Morgen-thaler, the pioneering physician who published a monograph on his patient-artist. Wölfli’s semi-au-tobiographical output was fêted by the Surrealists for its dense indecipherable prose, complex musical annotation and ethnologi-cal influences. Le Foyer de l’Art Brut

courtesy of La Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne

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Jacq

uelin

e Po

rret

-For

el =

> re

sear

ches

Alo

ïse C

orba

z>

OC

TOBE

R //

pub

licat

ions

+ G

allim

ard

JD +

Gas

ton

Gal

limar

d =>

pre

para

tions

for

Les

Cah

iers

de

lʼArt

Bru

t *

JD +

Gas

ton

Cha

issac

=>

com

men

ces

18 y

ear

corr

espo

nden

ce

> JU

NE

- JU

LY /

/ pu

blic

atio

ns +

disc

over

ies

JD =

> w

rites

text

for

Gas

ton

Cha

issac

exh

ibiti

on (

Gal

erie

LʼA

rc-e

n-ci

el, P

aris)

JD +

Gas

ton

Gal

limar

d =>

pub

licat

ion:

Les

Bar

bus

Mül

ler

et a

utre

s pi

èces

JD +

Gas

ton

Gal

limar

d =>

pub

licat

ion

agre

emen

t can

celle

d>

AU

GU

STJD

+ B

rass

aï =

> re

sear

ches

gra

ffiti

for

publ

icat

ion

> N

OV

EMBE

R - D

ECEM

BER

// e

xhib

ition

s +

Gal

erie

Ren

é D

roui

n, P

aris

JD =

> op

enin

g of

exh

ibiti

on: B

arbu

s M

ülle

rJD

=>

Mic

hel T

apié

bec

omes

dire

ctor

of L

e Fo

yer

de L

ʼArt

Brut

Mic

hel T

apié

=>

exhi

bitio

n: H

enri

Salin

gard

es/X

avie

r Pa

rgue

y

> D

ECEM

BER

- MA

RCH

//

Mic

hel T

apié

+ G

aler

ie R

ené

Dro

uin,

Par

isM

iche

l Tap

ié =

> m

akes

Alin

e G

agna

ire/R

ober

t Gira

ud a

ssist

ants

Mic

hel T

apié

=>

exhi

bitio

ns/b

ooks

: Rob

ert V

éreu

x/La

my

+ M

igue

l Her

nand

ez

Mic

hel T

apié

=>

exhi

bitio

n +

book

: Pie

rre

Gira

ud +

Jan

Kriz

ekM

iche

l Tap

ié =

> ex

hibi

tion:

Fle

ury-

Jose

ph C

répi

n

> M

AY

- JU

NE

// A

ndré

Bre

ton

+ di

scov

erie

sJD

=>

mee

ts A

ndré

Bre

ton

+ di

scov

ers

Hec

tor

Hyp

polit

eJD

+ E

LT M

esen

s =>

disc

over

s Sc

ottie

Wils

onJD

=>

disc

over

s Ju

va (P

rince

Alfr

ed A

nton

in J

uritz

ky)

JD +

And

ré B

reto

n/Be

njam

in P

éret

=>

disc

over

s Pa

scal

-Dés

ir M

aiso

nneu

ve>

JUN

E - A

UG

UST

//

exhi

bitio

ns +

Gal

erie

Ren

é D

roui

n, P

aris

JD +

Mic

hel T

apié

=>

exhi

bitio

n: A

ugus

te F

ores

tier/

Jean

ne T

ripie

r/H

einr

ich-

Ant

on M

ülle

r JD

+ M

iche

l Tap

ié =

> ex

hibi

tion:

Juv

a JD

+ M

iche

l Tap

ié =

> ex

hibi

tion:

10

Art

ists

* JD

+ R

ober

t Gira

ud =

> cl

oses

Le

Foye

r de

lʼA

rt B

rut a

t Gal

erie

Ren

é D

roui

n >

SEPT

EMBE

R //

exh

ibiti

on +

Pav

illio

n G

allim

ard,

Par

isJD

=>

re-o

pens

Le

Foye

r de

lʼA

rt B

rut a

t Pav

illio

n G

allim

ard

*JD

=>

mak

es S

lavk

o Ko

pač

dire

ctor

Le

Foye

r de

lʼA

rt B

rut

> O

CTO

BER

// L

a C

ompa

gnie

de

lʼArt

Bru

tJD

+ A

ndré

Bre

ton/

Jean

Pau

lhan

/Cha

rles

Ratto

n/H

enri-

Pier

re R

oché

/Mic

hel T

apié

=>

form

atio

n of

non

-pro

fit L

a C

ompa

gnie

de

lʼArt

Bru

tJD

+ A

ndré

Bre

ton

=> s

tart

s w

ork

on lʼ

Alm

anac

h de

lʼA

rt B

rut *

> O

CTO

BER

- NO

VEM

BER

// r

esea

rch

+ Pa

villi

on G

allim

ard,

Par

isJD

+ C

laud

e-Lé

vi S

traus

s =>

res

earc

hes

priso

ner

art

JD +

Dr

Wal

ter

Mor

gent

hale

r =>

exh

ibiti

on +

boo

k: A

dolf

Wöl

fli

JD =

> ex

hibi

tion

+ bo

ok: J

oaqu

im V

icen

s G

irone

llaJD

+ J

ean

Gag

nebi

n/Ja

cque

line

Porr

et-F

orel

=>

exhi

bitio

n +

book

: Alo

ïse

> JA

NU

ARY

- M

ARC

H /

/ Sl

avko

Kop

ač +

Pav

illio

n G

allim

ard,

Par

isJD

+ S

lavk

o Ko

pač

=> e

xhib

ition

: 20

artis

ts *

JD +

Sla

vko

Kopa

č =>

exh

ibiti

on: J

eann

e Tr

ipie

r/A

ugus

te F

ores

tier/

Hei

nric

h-A

nton

Mül

ler

> A

PRIL

- JU

NE

// S

lavk

o Ko

pač

+ Pa

villi

on G

allim

ard,

Par

isJD

+ S

lavk

o Ko

pač

=> e

xhib

ition

: Ado

lf W

ölfli

JD +

Sla

vko

Kopa

č =>

exh

ibiti

on: 1

0 ar

tists

*

JD +

Sla

vko

Kopa

č =>

exh

ibiti

on +

boo

k: M

igue

l Her

nand

ez

Jean

lʼA

nsel

me

+ Sl

avko

Kop

ač =

> pu

blic

atio

n: H

istoi

re d

e lʼA

veug

le

> JU

NE

- SEP

TEM

BER

// S

lavk

o Ko

pač

+ Pa

villi

on G

allim

ard,

Par

isJD

=>

perm

anen

t exh

ibiti

on: L

e Fo

yer

de l'

Art

Bru

t (un

til S

epte

mbe

r 19

51)

> O

CTO

BER

- DEC

EMBE

R //

exh

ibiti

on +

Gal

erie

Ren

é D

roui

n, P

aris

JD =

> bo

ok: L

ʼArt

Bru

t pré

féré

aux

art

s cu

lture

ls

> SE

PTEM

BER

// G

erm

an tr

avel

sJD

+ W

erne

r Sc

henk

=>

rese

arch

at D

r H

ans

Prin

zhor

n co

llect

ion

+ ho

spita

ls/ps

ychi

atris

tsJD

+ W

erne

r Sc

henk

/D

r vo

n Br

aunm

ülh

=> d

iscov

ers

Eugè

ne G

abrit

sche

vsky

(E

glfin

g-H

aar

asyl

um, B

avar

ia)

> JA

NU

ARY

: exh

ibiti

ons

+ pu

blic

atio

nsJD

=>

exhi

bitio

n: 5

art

ists

* (L

ibra

irie

Mar

cel E

vrar

d, B

éthu

ne)

JD =

> co

nfer

ence

: Hon

neur

aux

val

eurs

sau

vage

s (F

acul

té d

es L

ettre

s, L

ille)

> SE

PTEM

BER-

OC

TOBE

R //

end

of L

e Fo

yer

de lʼ

Art

Bru

tJD

=>

diss

olut

ion

of L

a C

ompa

gnie

de

lʼArt

Bru

t JD

=>

perm

anen

t sep

arat

ion

with

And

ré B

reto

n JD

=>

Le F

oyer

de

l'Art

Bru

t at G

allim

ard

clos

esJD

=>

colle

ctio

n de

part

s fo

r A

mer

ica

19431930s

ART

BRU

T

1944

19451920s

1920s

> 19

22-2

3 //

net

wor

ksJD

+ P

aul B

udry

=>

trav

els

to L

ausa

nne

JD =

> m

eets

Fer

nand

Lég

er/J

uan

Gris

/And

ré M

asso

n

> 19

20-2

1 //

trav

els

JD =

> tra

vels

to A

lgie

rs w

ith h

is pa

rent

s

1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951

1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951

> 19

30 /

/ bu

sines

sJD

=>

star

ts w

ine

com

pany

in B

ercy

> 19

37 /

/ m

arria

geJD

=>

mar

ries

Emile

Car

lu (

Lili)

> M

ARC

H -

APR

IL /

/ ar

tJD

=>

mak

es a

rt: M

etro

+ J

azz

serie

s>

JULY

//

trave

lsJD

+ L

ili D

ubuf

fet =

> bi

cycl

e tra

vels

acro

ss F

ranc

e

> FE

BRU

ARY

- JU

LY /

/ ne

twor

ks +

art

JD =

> st

udio

visi

ts: R

ené

Dro

uin

+ G

eorg

es L

imbo

ur/J

ean

Paul

han/

Pier

re S

eghe

rsPa

ul E

luar

d/Eu

gène

Gui

llevi

c/Fr

anci

s Po

nge/

Jean

Fau

trier

/Ren

é de

Sol

ier

JD =

> m

akes

art

: Mes

sage

s se

ries

> O

CTO

BER

- NO

VEM

BER

// a

rt +

Gal

erie

Ren

é D

roui

nJD

+ P

ierr

e Se

gher

s =>

illu

stra

tes

book

: Lʼh

omm

e du

com

mun

(Po

ésie

44,

Par

is)JD

=>

Tabl

eaux

et d

essin

s (G

aler

ie R

ené

Dro

uin,

Par

is) +

crit

ical

atta

cks

> JA

NU

ARY

- A

PRIL

//

art +

exh

ibiti

ons

> JD

+ E

ugèn

e G

uille

vic

=> il

lust

rate

s bo

ok: L

es M

urs

(Les

édi

tions

du

Livr

e, 1

950)

JD =

> ex

hibi

tion:

Lith

ogra

phie

s (G

aler

ie A

ndré

, Par

is)>

JUN

E //

art

+ n

etw

orks

JD =

> m

akes

art

: Hau

tes

Pâte

s se

ries

JD =

> st

udio

visi

ts: A

ndré

Mal

raux

/Bal

thus

/Jac

ques

Lac

anJD

+ J

ean

Paul

han

=> v

isits

pat

ron

Flor

ence

Gou

ldJD

+ L

ili =

> vi

sits

Ant

onin

Art

aud

(Rod

ez A

sylu

m)

> SE

PTEM

BER

// n

etw

orks

+ tr

avel

sJD

+ J

ean

Paul

han/

Wol

s/Re

né D

roui

n =>

trav

els

to A

uver

gne

> M

AY

- JU

NE

// e

xhib

ition

sJD

=>

exhi

bitio

n: M

irobo

lus,

Mac

adam

& C

ie (

Gal

erie

Ren

é D

roui

n, P

aris)

Mic

hel T

apié

=>

text

: Miro

bolu

s, M

acad

am &

Cie

(Gal

erie

Ren

é D

roui

n, P

aris)

JD

=>

exhi

bitio

n: J

ean

Dub

uffe

t (Pi

erre

Mat

isse

Gal

lery

, New

Yor

k)JD

=>

publ

icat

ion:

Pro

spec

tus

aux

amat

eurs

de

tout

gen

re (

Gal

limar

d, P

aris)

> JU

LY -

DEC

EMBE

R //

art

+ n

etw

orks

JD =

> m

akes

art

: Pay

sage

s gr

otes

ques

+ P

ortra

its s

erie

sJD

+ G

eorg

es B

raqu

e =>

disc

ours

e on

art

> JA

NU

ARY

- FE

BRU

ARY

//

exhi

bitio

n +

trave

lJD

=>

exhi

bitio

n: J

ean

Dub

uffe

t (Pi

erre

Mat

isse

Gal

lery

, New

Yor

k)JD

+ L

ili D

ubuf

fet =

> tra

vels

to S

ahar

a D

eser

t>

JUN

E //

art

+ e

xhib

ition

sJD

+ L

ili D

ubuf

fet =

> tra

vels

from

Sah

ara

Des

ert

JD =

> se

lls w

ine

busin

ess

> O

CTO

BER

- NO

VEM

BER

// e

xhib

ition

s JD

=>

exhi

bitio

n: P

ortra

its (

Gal

erie

Ren

é D

roui

n, P

aris)

+ p

hysic

al a

ttack

s JD

=>

exhi

bitio

n: L

ithog

raph

s (P

ierr

e M

atiss

e, G

alle

ry, N

ew Y

ork)

> N

OV

EMBE

R //

trav

elJD

+ L

ili D

ubuf

fet =

> tra

vels

to S

ahar

a D

eser

t

> A

PRIL

//

trave

lJD

+ L

illi D

ubuf

fet =

> re

turn

s fro

m S

ahar

a D

eser

t >

NO

VEM

BER

- DEC

EMBE

RJD

=>

exhi

bitio

n: P

aint

ings

and

Gou

ache

s (P

ierr

e M

atiss

e G

alle

ry, N

ew Y

ork)

JD =

> te

xt: L

er D

la C

ampa

ne (L

a C

ompa

gnie

de

lʼArt

Bru

t, Pa

ris)

> M

ARC

H -

APR

IL /

/ tra

vels

JD +

Lili

Dub

uffe

t =>

trave

ls to

Sah

ara

Des

ert

> O

CTO

BER

- DEC

EMBE

R //

pub

licat

ions

+ e

xhib

ition

JD =

> pu

blic

atio

n: A

nvou

aiaj

e pa

r in

nim

besil

ave

c de

zim

age

(Des

jobe

rt, P

aris)

JD =

> ex

hibi

tion:

Des

sins

et p

eint

ures

(G

aler

ie G

eert

van

Bru

aene

, Bru

ssel

s)JD

+ P

aulh

an =

> pu

blic

atio

n: L

a M

étro

man

ie (D

esjo

bert

, Par

is)JD

=>

mee

ts A

lfons

o O

ssar

io/J

acks

on P

ollo

ck

> JA

NU

ARY

- JU

LY /

/ ex

hibi

tion

+ pu

blic

atio

nsJD

=>

exhi

bitio

n: P

aint

ings

: 194

3-19

44 (

Pier

re M

atiss

e G

alle

ry, N

ew Y

ork)

JD =

> ex

hibi

tion:

La

Mét

rom

anie

(G

aler

ie N

ina

Dau

sset

, Par

is)JD

=>

publ

icat

ions

: Lab

onfa

m a

bebe

r pa

r in

bo n

om +

Plu

kife

kler

mou

inko

n ni

voua

> JA

NU

ARY

- M

ARC

H /

/ ex

hibi

tions

+ a

rtJD

=>

exhi

bitio

n: P

aint

ings

(Pie

rre

Mat

isse

Gal

lery

, New

Yor

k)JD

=>

exhi

bitio

n: P

our

conn

aître

mie

ux J

ean

Dub

uffe

t (G

aler

ie R

ive

Gau

che,

Par

is)JD

=>

exhi

bitio

ns: S

ol e

t ter

rain

s +

Tabl

es p

aysa

gées

ser

ies

(Gal

erie

Riv

e G

auch

e, P

aris)

> SE

PTEM

BER

- DEC

EMBE

R //

trav

els

+ ex

hibi

tion

Cle

men

t Gre

enbe

rg =

> su

ppor

ts J

DJD

+ L

ili D

ubuf

fet =

> tra

vels

to A

mer

ica

JD =

> ex

hibi

tion:

Jea

n D

ubuf

fet (

Art

s C

lub

of C

hica

go)

JD =

> le

ctur

e: A

ntic

ultu

ral P

ositi

ons

(Art

s C

lub

of C

hica

go)

de la

sta

tuai

re p

rovi

ncia

l

JD =

> ex

hibi

tion:

63

artis

ts *

*

JD =

> op

enin

g of

Le

Foye

r de

lʼA

rt B

rut

Timeline

3534

* Le Foyer de l’Art Brut

1946 Les Cahiers de l’Art BrutLes Barbus Müller Aloïse Corbaz Fleury-Joseph Crépin Auguste Forestier Heinrich Anton Muller Xavier Parguey Somuk Louis Soutter Adalbert Trillhaase Berthe Urasco Adolf Wölfli

1948 ExhibitionMaurice Baskine Gaston Chaissac Aloïse Corbaz Fleury-Joseph Crépin Pierre Giraud Joaquim Vicens Gironella Miguel Hernandez Jan Krizek Henri Salingardes

1948 L’Almanach de l’Art BrutAlphonse Benquet Louis Capderoque Aloïse Corbaz Fleury-Joseph Crépin Joaquim Vicens Gironnella Miguel Hernandez Hector Hyppolite Dr Charles Ladame Pascal-Désir Maisonneuve Xavier Parguey Heinrich Anton Muller Henri Salingardes Robert Tatin Adalbert Trillhasse Berthe Urasco Scottie Wilson Adolf Wölfli

1949 ExhibitionAloïse Corbaz Joaquim Vicens Gironella Miguel Hernandez Robert Tatin Adolf Wölfli

1949 ExhibitionJean L’Anselme Marie-Louis B. Gaston Chaissac Aloïse Corbaz Paul End Auguste Forestier Miguel Hernandez Heinrich Anton Müller Jeanne Tripier Adolf Wölfli

1949 L’Art brut préféré aux arts culturelsGottfried Aeschlimann Antinéa Benjamin Arneval Aymon Julie Bar. Béguin Alphonse Benquet George Berthomier Ernst Bollin Albino Braz Le Barbare Guillaume Gaston Chaissac Mau-rice Charrieau Aloïse Corbaz Fernand Costa Fleury-Joseph Crépin Joseph Degaudé-Lambert Qadour Douida Gaston Duf Paul End Henri Filaquier Auguste Forestier Willi Otto Gappisch Robert Gie. Pierre Giraud Joaquim Vicens Gironella Gustav Miguel Hernandez Joseph Heuer Aimable Jayet Juliette Élisa Bataille Juva Sylvain Lecocq Stanislas Lib Pascal-Désir Maisonneuve Jean Mar Xavier Parguey Clotilde Patard Raymond Oui Georges Roger Henri Salingardes Jaime Saguer Marguerite Sirvins Somuk Jean Stas Amélie Stern Robert Tatin Jeanne Tripier Berthe Urasco Victor Waedemon Scottie Wilson Adolf Wölfli....................................................................................................The Gallery of Everything would like to thank La Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne, for their support with this show, as well as Sophie and Agnès Bourbonnais, Baptiste Brun, Marcel and David Fleiss, Sarah Lombardi, Vincent Monod, Jean-Pierre Ritsch-Fisch, Guillaume Zorgbibe and all those involved in researching Le Foyer de L’Art Brut.

Déborah Couette is an art historian and curator. Publications include Collectionner l’art brut (Albin Michel, 2016). Céline Delavaux is a writ-er and doctor in literature. Publications include L’Art Brut, un fantasme de peintre (Palette, 2010). Couette and Delavaux co-curated Il était une fois l’art brut (Art et Marges Musee, 2014).

Concept James Brett, Déborah CouetteEssay Déborah Couette, Céline DelavauxDiagrams James Brett, Déborah Couette, Meg JonesEdit/Translation James BrettPublication © The Gallery of Everything 2016

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Notes

*

Exhibition Lists

3736

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Notes

38