Publication of Michel Thévoz's book Pathologie du cadre (Pathology of the Frame)

This book is being published to mark the upcoming exhibition L'Art Brut: Frame Work, curated by Michel Thévoz at the Collection de l'Art Brut.

The frame, that eccentric prop which is neither outside nor inside and which eludes all our categories, paradoxically becomes the focus of philosophical attention because of its very indeterminacy. All the more so since, looking beyond the painted canvas, it is the regulating principle of urban space, artefacts, social organisation and the symbolic order in general.

By definition not subject to our cultural conventions, Art Brut artists put them to an unusual, deconstructive use which it would be rash to consign to the register of pathology. This because such irregularities lead us to consider the frame in terms of its strangeness: its function as physical protection and wall hanging is perhaps no more than a utilitarian alibi for an ideological formatting whose emphases it determines.

If it is true that the pathological demystifies the normal, in this particular case a threshold of reversion is crossed: it is the frame itself, both intrinsically and culturally, which is vulnerable to pathology when illuminated by Art Brut.

Michel Thévoz, Pathologie du cadre, preface by Sarah Lombardi, Paris, Les Éditions de Minuit, 2020, 160 pages, 67 colour illustrations.

Price: 26.00 CHF. Available from the museum bookshop and the boutique on the Collection de l'Art Brut website.

Publish Date: 04.11.2020