From the early Romantic period to the end of the XIXth Century, women’s folie furieuse or melancholia have been the subject of fascination and depicted in numerous literary works, from the French novelist Balzac’s Adieu to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre or the American Charlotte Perkins’ The Yellow Wallpaper.
The lives and works of French women artists such as Camille Claudel, the sculptress Louise Bourgeois, the writers Marguerite Duras or Chloé Delaume, the recent legitimization and recognition of the bodies of work of Séraphine de Senlis, of Aloïse Corbaz, are testimonies of a drastic evolution in the way French society views women’s contributions to art history and culture but also to mental health and imagination: not only has the social gaze drastically changed its judgment of women, but madness and reason, “Art brut” and “official Art” have appeared closer to each other, certainly not the polar opposites our “enlightened” ancestors had made them to be. By including the study of Art Brut (Outsider Art) in particular, the course thus aims at bringing students to questions their views of art, and their judgement on complex, sometimes intricate personalities.
Visits to the Halle Saint-Pierre in Montmartre and the Collection ABCD in Montreuil, study trips to the Lausanne Collection de l’Art brut and/or to Villeneuve d’Asq’s LAM museum will allow students to visualize the disconcerting works created by rebellious, marginal and often solitary artists, experience the complexities of human expressions and the therapeutic value of art.