Art Brut in America: The Incursion of Jean Dubuffet

Art Brut in America: The Incursion of Jean Dubuffet traces the influence of Art Brut in the US through works from Dubuffet’s art brut collection. The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue are organized around two seminal art-historical moments: the display of Dubuffet’s collection at the home of artist and collector Alfonso Ossorio in the 1950s, and Dubuffet’s provocative speech “Anticultural Positions” delivered at the Arts Club of Chicago in 1951. Including both little-known and canonical works--such as drawings, annotated manuscripts, letters, paintings, embroideries and sculptures--created by 38 artists, including Aloïse Corbaz, Heinrich Anton Müller, Francis Palanc, Jeanne Tripier and Adolf Wölfli, as well as artworks by anonymous artists and children, this volume points to the influence of Art Brut on the burgeoning American style of Abstract Expressionism, as well as on individual artists and collectors.