The Death of Yvonne Robert

It is with deep sadness that the Collection de l'Art Brut announces the death of Yvonne Robert (1922 - 2018) on Saturday January 20th, at the age of 95. 

Yvonne Robert was born in Saint Avaugourd-des-Landes, France, as the only daughter of a family of seven children whose parents farmed the land. Having endured a difficult childhood, at the age of twelve, upon receiving her school certificate, Yvonne found a job as a maid. She went on to marry a farmer herself and, as of 1944, the couple set themselves up in the village of Grues (Dept. of Vendée), where Yvonne lived for the rest of her life. The start of her artistic activity came in 1974 when pretending she was buying a gift for a child, she bought herself some art supplies. Yvonne Robert worked sitting on a chair, setting the canvas held in her left hand vertically atop her knees. She would dip her brush directly into the tubes of color set upon a cloth next to her. No sooner had she finished a piece than she would hang it on one of the walls of her home. Her colorful compositions feature figures and animals depicted in familiar scenes which, nonetheless, seem to imply a symbolic dimension. Each of her works bears a title, a date, and the signature "R. Yvonne." She only gave any of her works away to those persons whom she had learned to trust.

In 2012, the Collection de l'Art Brut, which owns six of her works, coproduced the documentary film "Yvonne Robert, une femme qui vient de l'ombre" (Y.R., a woman from out of the shadows) by Mario Del Curto and Bastien Genoux, with the participation of Alain Bouillet.

 

Publish Date: 26.01.2018