Michel Thévoz

Born in 1936, Michel Thévoz served as Curator of the Cantonal Fine Arts Museum of Lausanne from 1960 to 1975. After coming into contact with Jean Dubuffet, he took the initiative of launching the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, which he directed from its foundation in 1976 until 2001. From 1986 to 2001, he worked in parallel as an Art and Museology Professor at the University of Lausanne.
He has published some twenty books, including Louis Soutter ou l'écriture du désir (L'Age d'Homme 1974), L'Art Brut (Skira 1975), Le corps peint (Skira 1984), Requiem pour la folie (La Différence 1995), Le miroir infidèle ( Ed. de Minuit 1996) and Plaidoyer pour l’infamie (P.U.F. 2000).

Michel Thévoz is particularly interested in borderline phenomena such as academicism, art by the insane, suicide, spiritualism mirror reflections, infamy, the canton of Vaud "syndrome," and more still.