press kit - Collection de l`Art Brut

PRESS KIT
Guided tour (preview) for the press
Thursday, 30 June 2016, 11 am
Registration :
Sophie Guyot, press attaché
sophie.guyot@lausanne.ch
COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT LAUSANNE
Avenue des Bergières 11, CH-1004 Lausanne
+41 21 315 25 70 – art.brut@lausanne.ch – www.artbrut.ch
COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT
PEOPLE
The very title of this exhibition seems to run counter to the anonymity valued by the creators of Art
Brut: men and women little inclined to seek celebrity. These self-taught persons, for the most part
unknown to the public, enjoy depicting movie stars, musicians, singers, athletes and political
figures in their works. The fame of such people holds a certain fascination for many producers of
Art Brut. Today's widespread "people press" is akin to a collective iconography that has become
part and parcel of the visual culture of all sectors of society, including the creators of Art Brut.
When Jean Dubuffet first declared Art Brut to be "unscathed by society," he was alluding to culture
in an academic and official sense. He would later admit that both cultural virginity and total
acculturation are inexistent.
The exhibition presents a gallery of portraits all belonging to the museum holdings. It comprises a
great number of celebrities such as Gary Cooper, Marilyn Monroe and Sharon Stone; Elvis Presley
and Johnny Hallyday; the French cyclist Bernard Hinault and champions in other categories; or
even Abraham Lincoln and Aung San Suu Kyi, together with Prince Charles and Camilla!
Frequently, these works are images of images: they have been created by copying from
photographs or movies. Nevertheless, the works by such creators are unaffected by the cultural
codes governing the reproductions to which they resort. Instead, they adapt fragments representing
our society on their own terms, integrating them into a world of their own. They suffer no
constraints and can even, at times, handle their subjects rather irreverently. Art Brut creators who
attend art workshops use magazine and book illustrations only as a starting point for their work.
Indeed, often the identity of the glossy page persons they copy is totally unimportant to them.
Revisiting or reinventing such persons in their own highly personal style tends to almost
demythologize the figures depicted.
The great creativity that shows through Art Brut works affects all those who view them. David
Bowie is one among many of the celebrities to have felt the intensity they convey: "Switzerland also
enabled me to discover Art Brut, which made a strong impression on me, on my creative activity. I
remember bringing along Brian Eno to the Lausanne museum, and spending hours with him
admiring the works on display, thinking about the creative process and the boundaries artists are
ready to cross in their quest..."
Exhibition curator: Anic Zanzi, Curator at the Collection de l'Art Brut
PEOPLE
03.07. – 13.11.2016
COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT
Curzio di Giovanni, Sharon Stone, 2010, lead pencil, colored pencil and ballpoint pen, 34 × 24 cm
Photo : Sarah Baehler, Atelier de numérisation - Ville de Lausanne, Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
PEOPLE
03.07. – 13.11.2016
COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT
PUBLICATION
Produced in the form of a magazine, this publication brings together essays by the journalists
Michel Audétat of Le Matin Dimanche, Jean-Blaise Besençon of L’Illustré, Luc Debraine of
L’Hebdo, the art critic and freelance journalist Edward M. Gómez, New York, and Florence Millioud
Henriques of 24 heures.
People, curated by Anic Zanzi, Lausanne : Collection de l’Art Brut, 2016, 38 pages.
With the support of the Association of the Friends of Art Brut (AAAB).
PEOPLE
03.07. – 13.11.2016
COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT
A FEW EXCERPTS
La représentation des célébrités, un attrait pour certains auteurs d’Art Brut. [Depicting
Celebrities Appeals to Certain Art Brut Creators]
By Edward M. Gómez, freelance journalist, NY
Very often, works by authors of Art Brut are highly personal: they explore an inner world.
Nonetheless, and like artists in an academic vein, the creators of Art Brut can also pay heed to the
outside world, to the society in which they live and the people surrounding them. Their depiction of
celebrities can be considered an obvious example of the effort they make to enter into contact with
the rest of the world.
Les stars en plans serrés. Travelling sur la non-différence. [Close-ups of stars. Travelling shot
of non-difference.]
By Florence Millioud-Henriques, 24Heures
Marilyn ahead of them all, Shirley and Humphrey in her wake or else Gary, Gina, and Tyrone...all
Hollywood hangs from the Art Brut walls. A real "walk of fame"! Yet to the creators here – enthused
by the fiery force of the faces and enthralled by the incandescence of their inner selves – these
portraits are but a parade of archetypes. Like a parade of humanities to depict... and re-depict.
These are no stars to be worshipped. No "people" figures. No models to envy, but simply faces to
explore.
Stylo solo. [Solo Style]
By Jean-Blaise Besençon, l’Illustré
The American creator Gene Merritt never did really explain why, one day in 1997, at the age of 56,
he took up drawing with such a passion. But one thing is sure: it was after having sold his guitar.
Sold it to buy himself some beer. To pay the next ones, perhaps the drawings may have served to
settle the cost. Having lost his instrument, a mere ballpoint pen and a sheet of paper provided a
new means of expression.
Invisibles et visibles.
By Michel Audétat, le Matin Dimanche
By working on images taken from glossy magazines, Art Brut creators reflect a view of this war on
behalf of visibility, yet in an often paradoxical fashion. What first strikes us as we look at these
works, is our not recognizing the famous people depicted.
Pour le sport. [For sports]
By Luc Debraine, L’Hebdo
Sports are the art of freeing ourselves of our constraints, our limits. Isn't that just what the creators
of Art Brut also seek? To free themselves of their condition through the compulsive exercise of
drawing, painting, assembling scrap pieces? Projecting themselves into those gods of trajectory,
from ball games to bicycling, as the reverse image thereof.
PEOPLE
03.07. – 13.11.2016
COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT
WHAT “PEOPLE” HAVE SAID ABOUT THE
COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT
I was excited to finally come here. It has surpassed my expectations. This is truly the best gallery I
have ever visited. Thank you.
Thom Yorke (Radiohead), Visitors’ Book, 15.08.2006
When I was studying art at college, this collection had a profound effect on me. Now I have seen it
for myself. It surpassed all my expectations. I was almost moved to tears. Which never happens to
me in museums [...] Honestly, go and see it if you are in the area. It will change you.
Thom Yorke (Radiohead), 24heures, 17.08.2006
Switzerland also enabled me to discover Art Brut, which made a strong impression on me, on my
creative activity. I remember bringing along Brian Eno to the Lausanne museum, and spending
hours with him admiring the works on display, thinking about the creative process and the
boundaries artists are ready to cross in their quest...
David Bowie, L’Hebdo, 06.06.2002
With my heartfelt appreciation.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Visitors’ Book, 1979
Fascinating.
Jacqueline Picasso, Visitors’ Book, 1982
I have a real passion for Art Brut. I feed off it; I pick out lots of things from it and make them my
own... Precisely for its use of poor materials, trivial, discarded or unloved objects, marginalised
forms of expression such as sewing or embroidery. And the great thing about it is that it is not
dated, it is timeless.
Annette Messager, 24heures, 27.07.2005
Art Brut has always fascinated me. I remember an embroidered dress that one of the solitary artists
kept hidden under her bed. That impressed me more than anything you can see at the Louvre.
Christian Lacroix, Le Temps, 12.07.2008
Perhaps the most beautiful museum I know of.
Jean-Louis Trintignant, Visitors’ Book, March 1995
Thanks for everything. See you again soon!
Géraldine Chaplin, Visitors’ Book, 1995
In Lausanne, you have one of the most magical venues in the world, the Collection de l'Art Brut.
Yolande Moreau, 24Heures, 10.12.2013
I'm crazy about the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne. It's where I get to see Aloïse Corbaz, an
artist who fascinates me because she created a world beyond everything.
Isabelle Huppert, Le Temps, 4.06.2011
PEOPLE
03.07. – 13.11.2016
COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT
IMAGES AVAILABLE TO THE MEDIA
All images: Atelier de numérisation – Ville de Lausanne (AN)
Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
Curzio di Giovanni
Philip Glass, 2010
Lead pencil and colored pencil on paper
34 x 24 cm
Photo : Caroline Smyrliadis, (AN)
Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
Curzio di Giovanni
Sharon Stone, 2010
Lead pencil, colored pencil and ballpoint pen on paperboard
34 x 24 cm
Photo : Sarah Baehler, (AN)
Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
Yves-Jules Fleuri
Carla, c’est Nicolas leur tendre complicité etc., 2008
Acrylic paint and black felt tip pen on paperboard
55,1 x 72,3 cm
Photo : Caroline Smyrliadis, (AN)
Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
Yves-Jules Fleuri
Charles en Camilla cen l'uniek staatslroeks!, 2005
Acrylic paint and black felt tip pen on paperboard
73 x 54.9 cm
Photo : Michael Legentil, (AN)
Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
PEOPLE
03.07. – 13.11.2016
COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT
Gene Merritt
[-'Clark-Gabeles'-] 1995
Ballpoint pen and pencil on paper
25,5 x 35.5 cm
Photo : Claudine Garcia, (AN)
Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
Gene Merritt
[-'ElviS-PrESley'-], between 1995 and 1996
Black ink on paper, 28 x 21.2 cm
Photo : Morgane Détraz, (AN) Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
Dominique Hérion
Sylvie Vartan, s.d
Pastels on paper
33 x 22 cm
Photo : Olivier Laffely, (AN)
Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
Théo
Willi Brandt, 1981
Colored felt tip pen and black pencil on paper
25 x 37,5 cm
Photo : Olivier Laffely, (AN)
Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
PEOPLE
03.07. – 13.11.2016
COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT
LA COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT :
OUR FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY !
Throughout the year 2016, the museum will be celebrating the occasion with Art Brut-related
events.
LES VISITES DE MONSIEUR JEAN
[Mister John's visits]
Guided tours of the Permanent
Collection (40 min.) by Romain Daroles,
an actor graduate of La Manufacture
(Haute Ecole de Théâtre de la Suisse
Romande).
Staging: Nicolas Zlatoff.
Sunday 9 October 2016
Sunday 20 November 2016
2:30pm
4pm
No entry fee, no advance booking.
MEETING WITH
The Collection de l’Art Brut will be inviting key figures in the cultural realm—artists, musicians,
writers, filmmakers—to spend an evening sharing their discovery of Art Brut and the Lausanne
museum with the public.
The meetings will all be held at the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne.
24 June
at 7pm
Kiyoko Lerner and Mark Stokes, on Henry Darger
Screening and discussion
A meeting centered on the American creator of Art Brut Henry Darger, whose
works are on display at the Collection de l’Art Brut, as well as at several major
international institutions (notably, MoMA, NY; American Folk Art Museum, NY;
Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris).
Screening of the documentary Revolutions of the Night: The Enigma of
Henry Darger (by Mark Stokes, USA, 2012, 1’44, in Eng. with subtitles) and a
meeting with Kiyoko Lerner, Darger's former landlady who, with her husband, is
also heir to Darger's oeuvre, which she donated to, notably, the Collection de
l’Art Brut.
No entry fee, prior booking advisable at: art.brut@lausanne.ch
by telephone : + 41 21 315 25 70
or at the Collection de l’Art Brut site, www.artbrut.ch, "agenda" page
PEOPLE
03.07. – 13.11.2016
COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT
th
THE ART BRUT GARDENS – 4 EDITION – CONCERT AND SCREENING
6pm: The doors open
6:30 to 11pm: Refreshments, food trucks
8:30pm: Albin de la Simone concert, accompanied by two musicians
10pm: Presentation and screening of the film André et les martiens by Philippe Lespinasse,
C-P Productions, 2015, 66 min. With the film director in attendance.
In case of rain: the event will take place at Salle Paderewski, Allée Ernest-Ansermet 3,
1003 Lausanne.
Information as of Wednesday, June 29th, at 021/ 315 25 70 or www.artbrut.ch
PEOPLE
03.07. – 13.11.2016
COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT
EVENTS
Guided tour (preview) for the press Thursday 30 June 2016, 11am
by Anic Zanzi, Curator,
Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
Bookings: sophie.guyot@lausanne.ch
Official opening Saturday 2 July 2016, 6pm,
at Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
Free guided tour Saturday 10 September at 2:15pm
No entry fee on September 10th and 11th
European Heritage days
Young persons workshops Saturday 10 September at 2pm
(ages 6 to 10) Saturday 8 October at 2pm
Duration : 1h45
Fee : 10.-/ child
Guided tours For classes (from age 4) and groups, in French, German, English
and Italian.
Upon request
Class visits Advance booking required
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays 11am to 6pm
Thursdays from 9am to 6pm
Contact and booking for all tours and at www.artbrut.ch > agenda or 021/ 315 25 70
workshops on a first come first served basis
PEOPLE
03.07. – 13.11.2016
COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Press material Illustrations and press kit can be downloaded at www.artbrut.ch under:
media > dossiers de presse.
Media contact Sophie Guyot
Tel. +41 21 315 25 84 (Tuesdays, Wednesday mornings, Thursdays)
sophie.guyot@lausanne.ch
Address Collection de l'Art Brut
Avenue des Bergières 11
CH – 1004 Lausanne
www.artbrut.ch
Tel. +41 21 315 25 70
Fax +41 21 315 25 71
art.brut@lausanne.ch
Opening hours Tuesday through Sunday, 11am to 6pm
Open on holidays, Monday August 1 and Federal Monday of Fasting
Open every day in July and August
No entry fee the first Saturday of every month
Entry fee Fr. 10.Reduced fee: Fr. 5.–
Groups of 6: Fr. 5.–
The unemployed and youngsters up to 16: no entry fee
Accessibility By bus
From St-François : bus line 2, Beaulieu-Jomini stop.
From train station: bus lines 3 and 21, Beaulieu-Jomini stop.
By foot: 25 min. from the train station; 10 min. from
La Riponne Square.
By car: Highway, Lausanne-Blécherette exit, follow Palais de
Beaulieu. Parking de Beaulieu.
Reduced mobility:
The People exhibition is partially available to persons with reduced
mobility.
LA COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT THANKS THE FOLLOWING FOR THEIR SUPPORT:
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:
PEOPLE
03.07. – 13.11.2016