The museum

Discovery, study, and preservation of dissident creations

Since 1976, the Collection of Art Brut in Lausanne, housed in the Château de Beaulieu, has held the world’s first collection entirely devoted to Art Brut. Inherited from Jean Dubuffet’s founding donation in 1971 to the City of Lausanne and enriched through decades of acquisitions, research, and exhibitions, it is now recognized as the international reference institution for the preservation, study, and dissemination of this extraordinary art.

Jean Dubuffet establishes from 1945 a collection of art liberated from cultural and social conditioning.

In 1945, Jean Dubuffet laid the foundations of Art Brut: a spontaneous, rule‑free art, born on the margins of cultural circuits and created by self‑taught artists. He became interested in the works of people excluded from the artistic world, especially those in psychiatric settings. In 1971, he donated nearly 5,000 foundational works to the City of Lausanne. Since the opening of the municipal museum in 1976, the Collection of Art Brut has been preserving for almost 50 years the transmission of this free, non‑conforming, and ever‑living art.

Beaulieu Castle, a Swiss cultural property of national importance

Lausanne hosts the Collection of Art Brut, founded on the donation of Jean Dubuffet in 1971. Since 1976 it has been housed in the Château de Beaulieu, a neo‑classical 18th‑century monument listed as a cultural property of national importance, and this institution embodies the symbolic birthplace of Art Brut, situated in a heritage site chosen during his lifetime by Jean Dubuffet.

Documentation Center

The Documentation Center of the Collection of Art Brut embodies the indispensable reference for research, the press, and the museum world regarding Art Brut.