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Art movements

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ART BRUT

1945-1985

As early as 1945, Jean Dubuffet started his quest for art works that would be free from cultural norms or any fashionable trend. In his attempt, he was reacting against cultural determinism as imposed by such norms as taste and culture. He put together a large collection, some 5000 works, realized by “oddball artists”, self-taught and mentally disturbed. The collection has been preserved in a museum dedicated to Brut Art in Lausanne, Switzerland. In 1948, Dubuffet founded his own association, Compagnie de l’Art Brut, and at the time made the following statement: “Brut Art is the conglomeration of all art that sprung out of its author’s spontaneous inventiveness, owing as little as possible to trite art or commonplace culture. The creators of Brut Art are obscure unknown individuals, alien to the professional art world.” Dubuffet was soon joined by André Breton and Jean Paulhan. In this school of thought, man must move beyond accepted truths to find his own authenticity. Thus Brut Art is the production of individuals who for one reason or another find themselves outside of any social norms and any kind of cultural conformity. It is the expression of a formidable power of creativity, which may be commonly shared by all but which has been reduced or suppressed in most because of the constrictive mold of education and culture.

Artists not in gallery : Adolphe Wölfli, Aloïse, Heinrich Anton Müller, Laure Pigeon, Jeanne Tripier, etc.

Artists in gallery : , , , , , .

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XXth century art movements

chronology

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