Art Brut from Japan, Another Look

Following the publication of Art Brut du Japon, co-published in 2008 by the Collection de l'Art Brut and editions Infolio, this catalogue presents pieces by twenty-five new Japanese artists from different regions of Japan, whose works drawings, paintings, photographs, sculptures, and textiles - are largely unpublished. The authors explore the assimilation of Japanese Art Brut into the larger culture from 2008 to the present. As they point out, whereas the notion of mental handicap resides in aesthetic and sociological criteria (these artists are self-taught, and often socially marginalized misfits, draft dodgers, prisoners, psychiatric patients, the elderly, etc. who create outside of the official art system), the condition whether mental or physical is not a criterion in itself. Accompanying an exhibition at Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne from November 30, 2018 to April 28, 2019, this catalogue of new Japanese works expands our understanding of Art Brut in a contemporary albeit different cultural setting. Text in English and French.