TATE COLLECTION


TATE COLLECTION

Glossary home
Browse terms
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Art Brut 

French term translating as 'raw art'. Term invented by the French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art made outside the tradition of fine art, dominated by academic training, which he referred to as 'art culturel' – cultural art. Art Brut included graffiti, and the work of the insane, prisoners, children, and naïve or primitive artists. What Dubuffet valued in this material was the raw expression of a vision or emotions, untramelled by convention. These qualities he attempted to incorporate into his own art, to which the term Art Brut is also sometimes applied. Dubuffet made a large collection of Art Brut, and in 1948 founded the Compagnie de l'Art Brut to promote its study. His collection is now housed in a museum, La Collection de l'Art Brut in the Swiss city of Lausanne. Another major collection, using the term 'Outsider Art', is the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection, now on loan to the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.
 

Jean Dubuffet, Monsieur Plume with Creases in his Trousers (Portrait of Henri Michaux), 1947
Jean Dubuffet
Monsieur Plume with Creases in his Trousers (Portrait of Henri Michaux)
1947
 
Jean Dubuffet, The Tree of Fluids, 1950
Jean Dubuffet
The Tree of Fluids
1950
 
Alfred Wallis, St Ives, circa 1928
Alfred Wallis
St Ives
circa 1928