The theatre is the central theme of this fourth volume in our series titled “Art Brut – The Collection,” published to coincide with the fourth Art Brut Biennale.

After exploring architecture, vehicles, and bodies, attention turns to the theatre, a theme that is developed in its various aspects. The simplest example is the depiction of theatrical architecture, as in the work of Eugen Gabritschevsky or Victorien Sardou. Other artists create works that are intimately connected to the world of theatre, however without necessarily being a part of it. For example, for Giovanni Battista Podestà or Vahan Poladian, a public stage is a place where they put on a “performance” that responds to a society that consigns them to its margins.

Their—intrinsically ephemeral—approach uses clothing or accessories as a means of communication and to have their voices or protestations heard. Other artists conceive whole cosmogonies that take the form of a gigantic staging of a fanciful, phantasmagoric world, as in the case of Aloïse Corbaz, whose work is to be viewed as a “Theatre of the universe,” or in that of Marguerite Burnat-Provins, with her graphic work titled Ma Ville.

The book includes over 100 illustrations, many of which published for the first time, carefully chosen to enable the reader to explore the theme of the theatre in Outsider Art, or Art Brut.