The concept of Art Brut persists in catching my attention from the first time I read about it in college for the development of an essay. My university years passed between enjoyment and creation through all this new and exciting world that was opening up for me and, in contrast, a constant feeling of suffocation and limitation to my flow as an artist, since the academy and its guidelines in a constant task of wanting to teach, cuts wings.
Composition, color, shapes, volume, creative development, and so many other concepts that mold an artist. There are some teachers that allow the waters of each being to become and of course, there are those that do the opposite. All immensely necessary for the nourishing path of each artist. So when I found this gem of a concept I felt that I wasn´t alone at the end of the day. Art Brut takes as its starting point the naïf and primitivism currents, its artists are completely self-taught. Art develops without contact, or contamination, with present or past art institutions. Therefore, everything captured in the work is born from the depths of each artists and their perception of the world. In short, Art Brut is the set of works of art made by people completely unrelated to the formal world of art.
This concept was translated in the early 70s (marginal art) but was initially coined by Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) in France and includes any artistic expression created outside the limits of official culture. Generally made by people with a psychiatric illness, or by people excluded from the normative society within what is called art such as children, the elderly and anyone who is not considered an "artist" It can be included within the branch of expressionism in its strictest sense. Some artists such as Picasso, Klee or Dali felt great interest in Marginal Art because of the ease with which this style broke with the established to give way to "non-pigeonholable" works. Previously, pictorial styles were much more delimited. In another era, crossing the boundaries of the standard was not as simple as it can be now where styles and movements are combined and altered indistinctly.
However, Art brut refers mostly to creations made in psychiatric or marginal environments as demonstrated by Jean Dubuffet after the Second World War, in 1945, who compiles the works created by people who are on the margins of society to found the "Compagnie d'Art Brut". The collection reached the amount of 5,000 pieces, which were shown to the public in 1967 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. The freedom in its expression, the natural becoming of the creative force that we carry within and can bring out through art inspires me to create from within, regardless of regulations that have been appropriating something so genuine and savagely human as art.
Image of the article is by the artist Jean-Pierre Vanhonsebrouck
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