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A Study on the category and the history of “Art Brut”

HAN EUI JUNG 1

1강원대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

“Art brut” (raw art) is a term ,which was defined by a French artist Jean Dubuffet, to describe the works by the no named people, who are not currently related to the art field. However, Art brut has been already existed before the birth of the concept, so its history had just started in the 20th century is somewhat no sense. This paper tries to form a full-history of Art brut, starting from the pre-history of the concept, through the birth and the change of the term with Dubuffet, to the present. The first part of this study about the pre-history of Art brut theoretically examines the relation between art and madness or genius. These theoretical approaches to the genius and the madness began with psychiatrists of the 19th century, such as Cesare Lombroso, Hughling Jackson and James G.Kirnan. Marcel Réjà in France was the first person who evaluated the works of the insane from an artistic perspective. He figured out the characteristics infantile, decorative and symbolic, and brought out a formative question. In Switzerland, Walter Morgenthaler published a monography of Adolf Wölfli as an artist, a mental patient. Hans Prinzhorn in Germany suggested six basic impulses (expression, order, reproduction, decoration, play, symbol) in thousands of examples from European institutions. His study became a sensation among the artists in Europe. Especially Jean Dubuffet had found the abundant power of expression in these works, never seen in the cultural art, and he’d started to collect them in earnest. By founding the Association of Art Brut and publishing the articles, Dubuffet had defined and modified the concept of Art brut. On the basis of the collection of Art brut by Dubuffet, we can classify theoretically into three groups: art in psychiatric hospital,psychic art and art at the margins of society. However, Dubuffet had always wanted to distinguish Art brut from the art of psychiatric hospital, furthermore from naïve art,surrealistic art, children’s art and primitive art. In the 1970s, Art Brut under the name of “art singulier” “hors-les-normes” “Neuve 330 Invention” embraced the works of self-taught artists and started to have various branches. In the 1990s, “outsider art”, translational word of Art brut in English, met the folk art in America. Even an annual outsider art fair had been held. Intuitive or visionary art is coming into the institution culture. Art brut today maintains a parallel relationship with the mainstream of arts and breaking down the boundaries of arts at the same time.

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* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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