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unpublished.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.
