Chronology

1945
Jean Dubuffet undertakes a first exploratory trip to Switzerland; he soon makes connections among many artists, writers and psychiatrists there. The works he discovers form the core of a collection that has never stopped growing.

1947
The Foyer de l’Art Brut comes into being in the basement of the Galerie Drouin in Paris, where the works are nevertheless shown in a spirit of utmost privacy.

1948
Together with notably André Breton and Jean Paulhan, Dubuffet founds the Compagnie de l’Art Brut, setting it up in a Parisian villa lent to them by the publisher Gaston Gallimard. Artists and intellectuals, including Jean Cocteau, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Henri Michaux, Francis Ponge, Tristan Tzara and Joan Mirò, show their interest.

1951
Subsequent to the Compagnie’s dissolution, the painter Alfonso Ossorio agrees to house the collection in his residence in East Hampton, near New York, where it remains for the next ten years.

1962
The works are repatriated to Paris and set up in a centrally located townhouse, with the painter Slavko Kopac acting as its curator and archivist. As reconstituted, the Compagnie de l’Art Brut serves as a study centre, where only the sincerely interested are welcomed. The collection develops extensively, thanks to various research projects and donations.

1964
Publication of the first of the L’Art Brut fascicules, devoted to the collection’s main creators.

1967
The City of Paris Museum of Decorative Arts presents a show entitled “L’Art Brut” featuring 700 works by 75 creators, all from the collection.

1971
Dubuffet donates the entire Art Brut collection, some 5000 pieces, to the City of Lausanne. The Act of Donation is officially ratified a year later.

1972
Release of the book "Outsider Art" by Roger Cardinal. London, Studio Vista.

1975
Release of the book "L'Art Brut" by Michel Thévoz, Genève, Albert Skira. Those two books ("Outsider Art" and "L'Art Brut") have been for a long time the two only references  for the Art Brut.

1976
Inauguration of the Collection de l’Art Brut at the Château de Beaulieu in Lausanne, with Michel Thévoz as its first curator. The institution’s historical credentials encourage the spread of its renown internationally. Contacts and activities in Europe and the United States multiply.

1978
Exhibition "Les singuliers de l'Art" at the modern art museum of Paris. First appearance of the term "singulier" in the arts scene.

1979
Exhibition of "Outsiders" at the Hayward Gallery by Roger Cardinal and Victor Musgrave, Londres. Origin of the Outsiders Art.

1982
Jean Dubuffet defines the Neuve Invention Collection as a group of subversive and inventive works (paintings, drawings, sculptures, fabric creations) created by artists out of sync with cultural circles.

1985
Death of Jean Dubuffet.

1995
Closing down of the Aracine in Neuilly-sur-Marne (France).

1995-1996
Art Brut et Compagnie - la face cachée de l'art contemporain [Art Brut and Co. - the hidden face of contemporary art].
A first-time-showing of the five major collections of Art Brut and singular art (Neuve Invention) hailing from French-speaking countries—namely, the Collection de l'Art Brut, the Collection de l'Aracine (Lille, F), the Fabuloserie (Bourgogne, F), the Petit Musée Bizarre (Lavilledieu, F) and the Collections Cérès Franco (Lagrasse, F): an unprecedented assemblage of works by 101 creators.

1996
Transfer of the Aracine Collection to the Museum of Modern Art of Lille Métropole in Villeneuve d’Ascq. Once the Collection, comprising over 3500 pieces, was duly housed, it was shown in an exhibition—"L'art brut, Collection de L'Aracine"— and, in 1999, was donated to the Collection de l'Art Brut of Lausanne.

1998-1999
Outsider Art and Folk Art from the Chicago Collections. Devoted to contemporary American Outsider Art and Folk Art, a first showing in France of works by fifty-one creators.

2001
Appointment of Lucienne Peiry as the director of the Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne.

2002
Appointment of Thomas Röske as the director of The Prinzhorn Collection in Heidelberg (Germany).

Inauguration of a series of eight exhibitions under the heading  "Les Chemins de l’art brut" [Art Brut pathways] organized by the  Museum of Lille Métropole through  2010.

2003
Since 2003, and in the wake of the "Ecriture en délire" [Delirious Writings] show presented at the Collection de l’Art Brut, the launching of a number of exhibitions focusing on Art Brut writings.

2004
Inauguration of the Borderless Art Museum NO-MA in Omihachiman-shi, in the Shiga Prefecture of Japan.

2005
Beginning of Collection de l'Art Brut film productions; growing interest among filmmakers.

Inauguration of the abcd Gallery in Montreuil, Paris.

Foundation of the Christian Berst Gallery in Paris, under the name "Objet trouvé" until 2009.


2006
Presentation in Madrid, and subsequently in San Sebastian (Spain) of 80 pieces from Collection de l’Art Brut.

Opening of the Gugging Museum in Maria-Gugging near Vienna (Austria).

Stopovers by the traveling exhibition "Richard Greaves Anarchitecte," drawn up by Sarah Lombardi and Valérie Rousseau, in Lausanne at the Collection de l’Art Brut, in Montreal at the Darling Foundry, in New York at the Andrew Edlin Gallery, in Chicoutimi (Quebec) at the La Pulperie Museum, as well as in Brussels at both the Art en Marges Museum and the CIVA (The International Centre for Urbanism, Architecture and Landscape).

2008
Launching by Colin Rhodes of a research laboratory based at the University of Sydney:  the STOARC (The Self-Taught and Outsider Art Research Collection).

In parallel to the Japan exhibition presented at the Collection de l’Art Brut, a tour of Japan by the traveling exhibition Crossing Spirit, organized jointly with the Borderless Art Museum NOMA, with stopovers at the Museum of Art of Asahikawa, the Borderless Art Museum NO-MA of Omihachiman and the Shiodome Museum of Tokyo. This exhibition featured some sixty works from the Collection de l'Art Brut, as well as works by Japanese Art Brut creators.

Loan of 70 pieces for the "Bestioles" [Bugs] show at the  Art en Marges [art brut] Museum in  Brussels.

Reappointment of Monika Jagfeld as Artistic Director for the  Saint-Gall (Switzerland) Museum im Lagerhaus.

Launching of the L’Osservatorio Outsider Art, presided by Eva di Stefano, at the University of Palermo (Italy).


2009
Inauguration of the "Museum of Everything," founded by the collector James Brett, with a first exhibition in London, followed by one in Turin.

Opening of the Gugging Gallery at the Gugging Center in Austria.

Reopening of the Art en Marges Museum in Brussels, under the new name art&marges museum.

Presentation of the "Art Brut fribourgeois" [Art from the Canton of Fribourg] exhibition at the Collection de l'Art Brut of Lausanne: featuring pieces born of religious traditions and folk imagery, this show revealed veiled cross-references among all the works.

Presentation at the Kunsthaus of Vienna (Austria) of the Japan show comprising about 100 pieces and mounted at the Collection de l'Art Brut of Lausanne in 2008.


2010
Release of the film "Rouge ciel" [Red Sky], a film essay on Art Brut by Bruno Decharme (Système B Production Company, France, 2010, 93 min.). Representing ten years' worth of work, meetings and discoveries, this film pays tribute to such singular creators as, notably, Henry Darger, Zdenek Kosek, Aleksander Lobanov, Kunizo Matsumoto and George Widener.

Opening of the LaM—Lille métropole musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut [the Lille Metropole Museum of Modern Art, Contemporary Art and Art Brut], upon completion of a four-year renovation project.  The museum holdings include the works formerly comprising the Aracine Collection.

Creation and inauguration of the CrAB group—"Collectif de réflexion sur l’Art Brut" [Art Brut Collective Think Tank]—at the Christian Berst Gallery in Paris.

Screening during one year of the film "Frédéric Bruly Bouabré l’universaliste," co-produced by the Collection de l’Art Brut, at London's Tate Modern: a screening that crowns the exhibition devoted to this Ivory Coast creator.

Donation to the Whitworth Art Gallery of Manchester (England) of the Musgrave Kiley Outsider Art Collection of over 800 pieces—a collection previously on loan for ten years to the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin (Ireland).

Reopening of the  Collection de l’Art Brut of Lausanne, after a four-month period of renovation and transformation of the lighting system. A number of changes effected with respect to the permanent exhibition.

2011
Inauguration of a  six-year seminar program on Art Brut, as set up by  the Galerie abcd of Montreuil (France) and the Collège International de Philosophie of Paris, headed by Barbara Safarova.

2012
Sarah Lombardi appointed ad interim Director of the Collection de l’Art Brut of Lausanne for one year. Lucienne Peiry named cultural attachée– Director of Research and International Relations for the Collection de l’Art Brut of Lausanne.

2013
Sarah Lombardi is appointed director of the Collection de l'Art Brut. She focuses mainly on showcasing the museum collections, while also regularly presenting new Art Brut creators and creators belonging to the Neuve Invention Collection.