Art Brut is a term created by the French artist Jean Dubuffet in 1948 to describe art created outside the traditional or academic art world; it is essentially what is known in English as Outsider Art. Today, the museum known as the Collection de L'Art Brut in Lausanne, opened in 1976 with a collection of works donated by Dubuffet, now boasts over 63,000 works by some 400 artists. Some 700 works are permanently on display. The Art Brut series is based on the "Biennale de l'Art Brut" project, which is designed to reveal the wealth of the museum's holdings. The collection, which cannot be placed on permanent exhibition due to lack of space, will be showcased in Biennial exhibitions on constantly changing themes. The first is entitled "Vehicles." In this exhibition, and in this accompanying volume, are such vehicular treasures of Art Brut as Motooka locomotives, Franz Kernbeis's bicycle, Willem van Genk's airships and the boats of Auguste Forestier. There is no shortage of Art Brut artists who focused their interest on movement.; the works here, by some fifty artists, include assemblages, sculptures and drawings.
