- A largely unpublished collection of Japanese Art Brut- A new selection of twenty-five Japanese Art Brut new artistsFollowing the publication of Art Brut du Japon, co-published in 2008 by the Collection de l'Art Brut and editions Infolio, this catalog 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from different regions of Japan, whose works drawings, paintings, photographs, sculptures, and textiles - are largely unpublished.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.
About the Author: Sarah Lombardi is an art historian and has been director of the Collection de l'Art Brut since 2013. Since her appointment as head of this Lausanne institution, she has placed emphasis on enhancing the prestige of the museum's collections by creating biennials of Art Brut (theme-based exhibitions present works exclusively from the institution's collection) and a new series of publications titled Art Brut, the Collection. She has worked on exhibition catalogues from the museums' own collection, and has contributed articles on Art Brut for other exhibitions catalogues and specialised reviews. She also writes the series of articles L'Art Brut begun in 1964 by Jean Dubuffet, and in November 2016 edited the Almanach de l'Art Brut, a project launched by Jean Dubuffet in 1948, a seminal work in the history of Art Brut. Edward M. Gómez is a journalist, art critic, exhibition curator, and a specialist in modern art and Japanese culture, in particular on Art Brut. He has written for The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, S. F. Gate/San Francisco Chronicle, Hyperallergic, Brooklyn Rail, salon.com, ARTnews, Art in America, Art & Antiques, Art + Auction, Metropolis, Interview, Modern Painters, Condé Nast Traveler, Eye (London), The Japan Times, Ikebana Ryusei. Tadashi Hattori is an associate professor of art history and theory at the Konan University in Kobe, Japan, and a former curator at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Kobe. He writes for numerous publications and curates many exhibitions about Art Brut and arts by the disabled. He collaborates with institutions for Art Brut in Europe such as abcd Art Brut, Adolf Wölfli-Stiftung, and Musée de la Création Franche.