AUTHORS INDEX

New works and new creators permanently continue to enrich the Collection de l’Art Brut that Jean Dubuffet donated to the City of Lausanne. Thus, in the wake of the 133 creators on the museum’s roster in 1971, the total is now nearly 400. The permanent exhibition comprises 700 works by about sixty creators.

All the images contained in this corpus are the property of the Collection de l'art Brut, Lausanne. They are only available on special request at info@artbrut.ch

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• Aloïse

  Aloïse

  (1886-1964), Switzerland

  Aloïse Corbaz was born in Lausanne, Switzerland. With a high school diploma in hand, she worked as a dressmaker but dreamed of becoming an opera singer. Later, she occupied a post as a governess in...

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• Amar, Paul

  Amar, Paul

  (1919), Algeria

  A French Sephardic Jew and Roman Catholic, Paul Amar was born in Algiers, Algeria. At the age of 17 he went to Paris to learn the trade of hairdressing. In 1945, at the end of the Second World War during which he...

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• Bartlett, Morton

  Bartlett, Morton

  (1909-1992), USA

  Morton Bartlett, orphaned at the age of eight, was adopted by a wealthy couple from Massachusetts. After graduating from Philipps Exeter Academy in Boston, he began studying at Harvard University (1929-1930), but...
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• Blackstock, Gregory L.

  Blackstock, Gregory L.

  (1946), USA

  The American Art Brut creator Gregory L. Blackstock (b. 1946) is autistic. He reinterprets the universe in the dim light of his cluttered one-room dwelling place. With the shutters closed and the curtains drawn day and...
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• Bosco, Giovanni

  Bosco, Giovanni

  (1948-2009), Italy

  Giovanni Bosco is a native of Castellammare del Golfo, a small town in northwestern Sicily. The second of five brothers, he lived with his mother and father. After two years of schooling he worked as a herd boy....
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• Carlo

  Carlo

  (1916-1974), Italy

  Carlo Zinelli was born near Verona, Italy. He was only two years old when his mother died. Seven years later his father, a carpenter by trade, sent him to work on a farm. Carlo later became a butcher’s...

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• Chaissac, Gaston

  Chaissac, Gaston

  (1910-1964), France

  Born in Avallon, France, Gaston Chaissac came from a humble family. Little attracted by schoolwork, he left school very early and did sundry jobs such as kitchen boy, assistant in an ironmonger’s,...

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• Chand, Nek

  Chand, Nek

  (1924), Pakistan

  Nek Chand was born in the village of Berian Kalan, in what is now Pakistan. Later, he emigrated to India with his family and in 1950 settled in Chandigarh, where he worked as a public transport...

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• Crépin, Fleury-Joseph

  Crépin, Fleury-Joseph

  (1875-1948), France

  Fleury-Joseph Crépin, known as Joseph Crépin, was born at Hénin-Liétard in northern France. He did various jobs before running his own ironmonger’s shop. In 1930 he was initiated into spiritualism and at...
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• Darger, Henry

  Darger, Henry

  (1892-1973), USA

  Henry Darger was born in Chicago, USA. In 1896 his mother died. The boy lived alone with his father for a year. He was then placed in a home, followed by an institution for the mentally handicapped in Lincoln,...

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• Deeds, James Edward

  Deeds, James Edward

  (1908-1987), USA

  James Edward Deeds was born in Panama in 1908: here his family was stationed during his father's stint as a naval officer with the USS Marblehead. In 1920, together with his parents, his three sisters and his...
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• Di Giovanni, Curzio

  Di Giovanni, Curzio

  (1957), Italy

  Curzio di Giovanni was originally from Lodi, in the Milan region of Italy. After several stays in a psychiatric environment, he was admitted to a hospital near Pavia in 1979. For a long time he displayed a...

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• Doudin, Jules

  Doudin, Jules

  (1884-1946), Switzerland

  Born in Payerne, Switzerland, Jules Doudin came from a family of ten children. When he was 11, his life was marked by his father’s suicide. To meet his needs, Jules left school very young and found...
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• Duf, Gaston

  Duf, Gaston

  (1920-1966), France

  Born in the mining region of the Pas-de-Calais, France, Gaston Duf came from a family of ten children. At the age of 14, he was apprenticed to a baker but was dismissed for incompetence. He subsequently worked...
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• Duhem, Paul

  Duhem, Paul

  (1919–1999), Belgium

  Paul Duhem was born in Blandain, Belgium. He left school at 14 and worked as a farmhand for various agricultural concerns. During the Second World War he went to Germany, where he laid rails for the railways....
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• End, Paul

  End, Paul

  (1895-?), France

  Paul End (1895-?) was born in the populous and highly industrialized region of Pas-de-Calais in France. At the age of eleven, two years after losing his father,...
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• Forestier, Auguste

  Forestier, Auguste

  (1887-1958), France

  Born in the Lozère region of France, Auguste Forestier was born in a farming family. He was always fascinated by trains and on several occasions absconded via this means of transport. One day in 1914 he...

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• Fraisse, Clément

  Fraisse, Clément

  (1901–1980), France

  Born in a village in the Lozère region of France, Clément Fraisse came from a farming family with 14 children. He received a rudimentary education, then worked on the family farm during his youth, before...
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• Fusco, Sylvain

  Fusco, Sylvain

  (1903-1940), France

  Sylvain Fusco was born in Lyon, France. He attended school until he was 13 and then did joinery and cabinet-making. He later attended classes at the Ecole des Beaux-arts for several months. In 1921, the young...

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• Genk, Willem van

  Genk, Willem van

  (1927-2005), Netherlands

  Willem van Genk was born in Voorburg, the Netherlands. He was subject to serious health problems, as well as behavioural problems, from a very early age. He started to draw both at school and at home,...

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• Gill, Madge

  Gill, Madge

  (1882-1961), England

  Madge Gill was born in the suburbs of London, England. She was brought up by her mother and aunt, and subsequently placed in an orphanage before going to Canada, where she was employed as a maid on a farm....
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• Gironella, Joaquim Vicens

  Gironella, Joaquim Vicens

  (1911-1997), Spain

  Joaquim Vicens Gironella was born in Agullana, in the Catalonian Pyrenees,  a Spanish region abounding in cork trees. Hailing from a family of cork makers, he himself in turn took up the craft. Enlisted in...
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• Goetze, Helga

  Goetze, Helga

  (1922-2008), Germany

  Helga Goetze was born in Magdeburg, in eastern Germany. For more than twenty years she gave provocative “performances” in the heart of Berlin. Every day, summer and winter alike, she was to be found from...

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• Guo, Fengyi

  Guo, Fengyi

  (1942-2010), China

  Guo Fengyi was born in Xi’an, Shanxi Province, in China, where she still lives. In 1962 she passed her secondary school leaving examinations and the following year became employed as a technician in rubber and...
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• Hauser, Johann

  Hauser, Johann

  (1926–1996), Czech Republic

  Johann Hauser was born in Pressburg – now Bratislava – in Slovakia. The child was placed in a special school and remained illiterate. Considered to be feeble-minded, at 17 years of age he was...
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• Hodinos, Emile Josome

  Hodinos, Emile Josome

  (1853-1905), France

  Joseph Ernest Ménétrier, known as Emile Josome Hodinos, was born in Paris to baker parents. His father died when the boy was eight; the latter was then placed in a boarding school. In 1869 he entered into an...
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• Hofer, Josef

  Hofer, Josef

  (1945), Austria

  Of Austrian origin, Josef Hofer was born in Wegscheid, Bavaria. The child never went to school, living in the isolation of the family farm. For nearly 40 years, Josef Hofer, who is a deaf mute, established no...

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• Jakic, Vojislav

  Jakic, Vojislav

  (1932–2003), Macedonia

  Born in Radobiljici, Macedonia, Vojislav Jakic was the son of an Orthodox priest from Montenegro. While still a child, he suffered the successive loss of his older sister and younger brother. Around 1935,...
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• Kernbeis, Franz

  Kernbeis, Franz

  (1935), Austria

  Of Austrian origin, Franz Kernbeis was the youngest in a family of seven children. The boy attended primary school for eight years, then worked in his parents’ agricultural concern. In 1955, he was admitted to the...
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• Krüsi, Hans

  Krüsi, Hans

  (1920-1995), Switzerland

  Hans Krüsi was born in the canton of Appenzell (Switzerland). He was taken in by some local farmers at the age of two and, eight years later, placed in an orphanage. He later found work as a farmhand,...
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• Laure

  Laure

  (1882-1965), France

  Laure Pigeon was born in Paris, France. Her mother, a professional laundress, died when Laure was five, leaving the little girl in the hands of her paternal grandmother, in Brittany. The girl received a...

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• Le Prisonnier de Bâle

  Le Prisonnier de Bâle

  (1877-1934), Italy

  The Prisoner of Basle (Joseph Giavarini) was born in a village near Parma, Italy. He lived at his godfather’s house together with his mother, who worked in a spinning mill. The boy was then placed as a...

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• Lesage, Augustin

  Lesage, Augustin

  (1876-1954), France

  Augustin Lesage was born in Saint-Pierre-les-Auchel, in the Pas-de-Calais region of France. Coming from a family of miners, he took up this trade in his turn. At the age of 35, while working down the mine, he...

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• Lobanov, Aleksander Pavlovitch

  Lobanov, Aleksander Pavlovitch

  (1924-2003), Russia

  Aleksander Pavlovitch Lobanov was born in Mologa, Russia. Following meningitis, the child became deaf and dumb and was affected by a weakening of intellect. He lived for some time in a boarding school, then...

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• Lonné, Raphaël

  Lonné, Raphaël

  (1910–1989), France

  Raphaël Lonné was born in the Landes region of France. He worked as a postman in his village, Montfort-en-Chalosse. From 1937 he was employed in Bordeaux, first as a cashier on the trams, then as a...
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• Mackintosh, Dwight

  Mackintosh, Dwight

  (1906-1999), USA

  Dwight Mackintosh was born in Hayward, California, USA. Until the age of 16 he lived in the family home, then he was sent successively to three psychiatric hospitals in the region. After spending 56 years in...

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• Maisonneuve, Pascal-Désir

  Maisonneuve, Pascal-Désir

  (1863-1934), France

  Pascal-Désir Maisonneuve was born in Bordeaux, France. A mosaicist by training, he reconstructed Gallo-Roman mosaics and adorned several chateaux in the surrounding area with his works. But his real passion...

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• Matsumoto, Kunizo

  Matsumoto, Kunizo

  (1962), Japan

  Kunizo Matsumoto was born in Osaka, Japan. He worked as a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant run by his relatives. At the same time, from 1985 to 1988 he attended a creative workshop for the mentally handicapped,...

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• Meani, Angelo

  Meani, Angelo

  (1906-1977), Italy

  Angelo Meani was born in Milan, Italy, where his parents owned a marble workshop. He was very quickly initiated into the profession: he started to carve marble as well as model small statues in clay. Later he...

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• Metz, Reinhold

  Metz, Reinhold

  (1942), Germany

  Reinhold Metz was born in Karlsruhe-Durlach, Germany. Raised by his grandmother, he wanted to become a writer or poet, but his manuscripts were rejected by the publishers to whom he sent them. Later, he became an...

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• Miyama, Eijiro

  Miyama, Eijiro

  (1934), Japan

  Eijiro Miyama was born in Mie Prefecture, Japan. A loner, he never married and has always led a wandering sort of existence. He has had various jobs, notably as a day labourer in the construction industry and as a...
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• Monsiel, Edmund

  Monsiel, Edmund

  (1897-1962), Poland

  Edmund Monsiel (1897–1962) was born in Poland. He went to primary school and, several years later, had a small shop in a provincial town of which he was dispossessed in 1942 by the Germans. Afraid of being...
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• Müller, Heinrich Anton

  Müller, Heinrich Anton

  (1865-1930), France

  Heinrich Anton Müller was born in Versailles (France). He married a Swiss girl and settled in her country, in Corsier-sur-Vevey (canton of Vaud). He became a winegrower and, with the ingenuity of a true...
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• Nannetti, Fernando Oreste

  Nannetti, Fernando Oreste

  (1927-1994), Italy

  Fernando Oreste Nannetti was born in Rome, of an unknown father. After finishing primary school the young boy was put into a charitable institution and at the age of ten was placed in a psychiatric hospital...

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• Nedjar, Michel

  Nedjar, Michel

  (1947), France

  Michel Nedjar was born in Soisy-sous-Montmorency, France, to a Jewish family combining both Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions. Originally from Algiers, his father was a tailor, while his Polish mother moved to Paris...
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• Obata, Masao

  Obata, Masao

  (1943-2010), Japan

  Masao Obata was born in Okayama Prefecture, Japan, on a small island where he spent his childhood. After his parents’ divorce he was raised by his mother. As a child, Masao Obata took pleasure in drawing, on...

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• Oko, Ataa

  Oko, Ataa

  (1919-2012), Ghana

  Ataa Oko was born in La, Ghana. He first earned his living as a fisherman, before hiring out to work on the local cocoa planta-tions. After an apprenticeship in carpentry begun in 1936, he crafted his first...

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• Palanc, Francis

  Palanc, Francis

  (1928), France

  Francis Palanc was born in Vence, France, where his parents were pastry-cooks. At the age of 16, after finishing school, he joined the family business and was initiated into the trade. At around 19, Francis Palanc...

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• Podestà, Giovanni Battista

  Podestà, Giovanni Battista

  (1895-1976), Italy

  Giovanni Battista Podestà was the thirteenth child in a Lombard farming family. His father died when he was still a little boy and he was raised by his mother, surrounded by his twelve sisters. He left school...

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• Pujolle, Guillaume

  Pujolle, Guillaume

  (1893-1971), France

  Guillaume Pujolle (1893-1971) was born in Saint-Gaudens, France. As a teenager he worked in the workshop of his father, a cabinetmaker, before enrolling in the army. After being taken prisoner during World War...
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• Ratier, Emile

  Ratier, Emile

  (1894-1984), France

  Emile Ratier was born into a farming family established in Soturac, in the region of western France. A farmer, the young man left the farm to go to the front in 1914. Returning from war to the family farm, he...

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• Robillard, André

  Robillard, André

  (1932), France

  André Robillard grew up near Orléans, France. His father was a forester and the family lived in a house placed at their disposal by the local authorities. At the age of 19, as a result of mental disturbances,...

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• Salingardes, Henri

  Salingardes, Henri

  (1872-1947), France

  Henri Salingardes was born in the Aveyron region of France, where his parents had a small restaurant. He worked as a barber in his native town, then in Paris. In 1922 he bought a small hotel in a village in the...
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• Santoro, Eugenio

  Santoro, Eugenio

  (1920-2006), Italy

  Eugenio Santoro was born in Castelmezzano in Lucanie, a region in southern Italy. After five years of elementary schooling he undertook an apprenticeship as a joiner. At the age of 20 he left for the front in...

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• Savoy, Gaston

  Savoy, Gaston

  (1923-2004), Switzerland

  A native of Attalens, in the canton of Fribourg (Switzerland), Gaston Savoy grew up and lived on the family farm. When, by the age of nine, he was still not speaking, he was admitted to the Le Guintzet...
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• Sawada, Shinichi

  Sawada, Shinichi

  (1982), Japan

  Shinichi Sawada  was born in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. Upon completing several years of study in a specialized school, he was received into an institution for the mentally disabled, in the city of Kusatsu....
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• Schulthess, Armand

  Schulthess, Armand

  (1901–1972), Switzerland

  Armand Schulthess was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He attended commercial college before doing an apprenticeship in an import–export company. From 1923 to 1934 he was the proprietor of a firm making...
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• Scott, Judith

  Scott, Judith

  (1943-2005), USA

  Judith Scott was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Afflicted by Down’s syndrome, she lived with her family in her early years, together with her twin sister. At the age of seven she was removed from her family...

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• Shuji, Takashi

  Shuji, Takashi

  (1974), Japan

  Takashi Shuji was born in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. He currently lives in the town of Nishinomiya. After finishing his education in a specialist school at the age of eighteen, Takashi Shuji attended the Suzukake...

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• Sir, Marguerite

  Sir, Marguerite

  (1890-1957), France

  Born in the Lozère region of France, Marguerite Sirvins came from a farming family. At the age of 41 she displayed schizophrenic disorders which led to her definitive admission to the psychiatric hospital of...

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• Tripier, Jeanne

  Tripier, Jeanne

  (1869-1944), France

  Jeanne Tripier was born in Paris, France. The daughter of a wine merchant, she spent her childhood in the country, then settled in the Montmartre district of Paris, where she was employed as a saleswoman in a...

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• Tschirtner, Oswald

  Tschirtner, Oswald

  (1920-2007), Austria

  Oswald Tschirtner was born near Vienna, Austria. From an early age he displayed a desire to become a priest and, aged ten, he was placed in a seminary. Later, despite his wish to enter a theology faculty, he...

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• Verbena, Pascal

  Verbena, Pascal

  (1941), France

  Pascal Verbena was born in Marseille, France. He lived in the Old Port district, where his mother was a fishmonger. At the age of 16 he went off to work on a cargo freighter. On his return, he decided to join the...
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• Walla, August

  Walla, August

  (1936-2001), Austria

  August Walla was born in Klosterneuburg, near Vienna, Austria. Following his father’s death the child was raised by his grandmother and mother. When, at the age of 16, he threatened to kill himself and set...

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• Widener, Georges

  Widener, Georges

  (1962), USA

  George Widener (b. 1962) was born in Covington, Kentucky, USA. His father died when the boy was nine and his mother was confined as a result of alcoholism problems. At the age of twelve, the adolescent was placed with...
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• Wilson, Scottie

  Wilson, Scottie

  (1888-1972), Scotland

  Scottie Wilson (Louis Freemann) was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He never went to school and remained illiterate. At the age of 16 he joined the army, then worked in fun fairs and circuses. Some years...

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• Wittlich, Josef

  Wittlich, Josef

  (1903-1982), Germany

  Josef Wittlich (1903–1982) was born in the village of Gladbach in the Rhineland, Germany. His mother’s death in 1907 left him under the authority of his brutal father. Withdrawn by nature, the child...

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• Wölfli, Adolf

  Wölfli, Adolf

  (1864-1930), Switzerland

  Adolf Wölfli was born in the canton of Bern, Switzerland. At the age of seven he was abandoned by his father. The boy remained alone with his mother for two years, before being placed in peasant...

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• Zagajewski, Stanislaw

  Zagajewski, Stanislaw

  (ca. 1927), Poland

  Stanislaw Zagajewski was abandoned by his mother at the age of two in front of a church in Warsaw, Poland. He was then placed in various orphanages. He later trained as a mason before being employed in stucco...