In 1945, the French painter Jean Dubuffet discovered Switzerland as fertile ground for his
collecting and research activities: In everyday life as well as in hospitals, prisons and psychiatric clinics he encountered people who, independent from academism and the art market, developed their very own styles. He used the term art brut (French for “raw” or “rough art”) to describe these intuitively and autodidactically evolved art forms. In 1976, a generous gift of unconventional works from Dubuffet’s collection gave rise to the internationally renowned Collection de l’Art Brut.

The exhibition at the Aargauer Kunsthaus assembles nearly two hundred paintings, drawings and objects from the Collection de l’Art Brut along with works from the holdings of the Aargauer Kunsthaus. It features Swiss artists from the early twentieth century to the present (Aloïse Corbaz, Diego, Alois Wey, Adolf Wölfli and others). Sometimes wildly and freely gestural, sometimes meticulous and detailed, their works focus on man, nature, architecture and emblematic imagery.

The travelling exhibition was produced by the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne and realised in cooperation with the Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau and the Museo di Ascona.