A lesson in ‘outsider art’
Being billed as the first large-scale Art Brut exhibition in Southeast Asia, “Art Brut: Figure of Unknown Beauty” will be unveiled on July 19 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre’s main gallery on the eighth floor.
The show, which runs until November 3, will introduce the works of about 50 artists from Japan and Thailand through paintings, ceramics, three-dimensional works, photographs and images.
Organised by the BACC, the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, the International Exchange Programme Executive Committee for Disabled People’s Culture and Arts and The Rainbow Room Foundation, the exhibition will be divided into five categories.
The first category will introduce works on the topic of "freshness", the tendency seen in many art brut works. The second category shifts the point of view to the works’ production environment and looks at materials and techniques in the context of how they are used and created in everyday life. The third will show the authors' thoughts and wishes at the source of creations for each topic. The second half of the fourth category focuses on the background of the works’ production and introduces the relationship between the authors and others around them. In the fifth category, collaborative works of contemporary artists and Art Brut artists who attempted new productions will be exhibited.
Art Brut, which is sometimes referred to as “Outsider Art” is art by self-taught or naive art makers who have little or no contact with the mainstream art world or art institutions. Introduced by Jean Dubuffet in 1945, it serves as a particular genre of creativity, exposing hidden dialogue and art that’s raw and boundary-less.
A featured principle of Art Brut refers to a person or group living in social and cultural isolation – such as the disabled, prisoners or senior citizens – who employ creative practices for personal purposes but do not consider themselves to be artists nor designate their production as art.
Find out more at the BACC website.
