Author André BretonPeople cited Aimée, Hermann Beil, G.-K. Chesterton, Jean Dubuffet, Gaston Ferdière, Jacques Lacan, August Neter, Hans Prinzhorn, Marcel Réja, Joseph Sell, Adolf Wölfli
Typescript dating from 1948 with several handwritten corrections by André Breton destined for Jean Dubuffet.
L'Art des fous, la clé des champs (‘The art of the insane, the key to the fields’): with a title that follows his preference for adapting readymade expressions (Les Pas perdus, Clair de terre...), in this important text of 1948 Breton offers a history of outsider art (art brut), or rather of its discovery – since outsider art clearly has no history, even if only thanks to the obscurity of its protagonists. Breton takes this opportunity to challenge art critics and their tendency to limit their interest to established artists. The Compagnie de l'art brut, for whose Almanach this text was intended but never published, had the aim not only of concerning itself with ‘other’ artists, but also of making an inroad into an artworld that was insufficiently creative. Breton’s manifesto-style text, which complements the prospectus drawn up by Dubuffet and was presented as an annex to the Compagnie’s statutes, would be published in issue 6 of the Cahiers de la Pléiade edited by Jean Paulhan, before being republished in Surrealism and Painting. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]
Typescript, with handwritten typographical annotations, undated [1948].
Stored in the cardboard folder labelled ‘L'Art brut’ in a dossier compiled by André Breton, altogether comprising 8 letters (11 in-12 pages and 1 in-4° page with envelopes).
‘L'art des fous, la clé des champs’, Typescript with several handwritten corrections by André Breton destined for Jean Dubuffet (4 pages in-4°). [Auction catalogue, 2003]
Translated by Krzysztof Fijalkowski
André Breton (Édition publiée sous la direction d’Étienne-Alain Hubert avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier et Marie-Claire Dumas), « L'Art des fous, la clé des champs », Le Surréalisme et la Peinture, Œuvres complètes, tome IV, Écrits sur l’art et autres textes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, p. 726-731, notice p. 1358-1359.
| Creation date | 1948 |
| Languages | French |
| Museum | Musée Lam de Lille Métropole, Villeneuve d'Ascq : Inv: 2003.7.20 |
| Reference | 1262000 |
| Breton Auction, 2003 | Lot 2294 |
| Keywords | Art Brut or naive, Criticism, Painting, manuscript |
| Categories | Manuscripts, Andre Breton's Manuscripts |
| Set | Dossier L'Art brut, [Breton's Manuscripts and Drawings] dossier Le Surréalisme et la peinture |
| Permanent link | https://cms.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100969690 |
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Une des trois lettres de Jean Dubuffet à André Breton datées de l'été et de l'automne 1948 et relatives à l'Art brut.
Trois images, une notice descriptive, un dossier, un musée.
[Correspondance] Lettres de Jean Dubuffet, Dossier L'Art brut
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Lettre d'André Breton à sa fille Aube, écrite le 12 octobre 1948. Expédiée de Paris à Putney, aux États-Unis.
Trois images, une notice descriptive, une transcription, une bibliothèque, des liens.
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Lettre d'André Breton à sa fille Aube datée du 10 septembre 1953, de Paris.
Trois images, une notice descriptive, une transcription, une bibliographie, une bibliothèque,des liens.
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This manuscript text, republished in Surrealism and Painting in 1965, was first published in the winter of 1948-1949 in issue 6 of Les Cahiers de la Pléiade.
Four images, a description, a bibliography.
[Breton's Manuscripts and Drawings] dossier Le Surréalisme et la peinture, [AB's Manuscripts] Miscellaneous Manuscripts
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Numéro 6, d'automne 1948 - hiver 1949, de cette revue dirigée par Jean Paulhan à Paris.
Deux images, une notice descriptive, un lien.
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14 photographies de peinture, illustrant L'Art des fous.
16 images, une notice descriptive, un musée, une exposition.
