SWISS ART BRUT: HANS KRÜSI’S SPLENDID, INVENTIVE WORLD

A RECENT EXHIBITION SHOWCASED THE SELF-TAUGHT ARTIST’S INVENTIVE ART-MAKING AND DEEPLY PERSONAL VISION

by Edward M. Gómez

WARTH, SWITZERLAND — Because of the life circumstances in which the French modern artist Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) and other researchers of both his own era and later times discovered certain makers of what came to be known as “art brut” (literally, “raw art”), or hard-to-classify works produced by self-taught artists living on the margins of mainstream culture and society, unfortunately, even today, many art enthusiasts who have heard of but know little about the historical details of art brut believe that its creators were mostly or always individuals who were affected by mental or physical disabilities.

Photographs of Hans Krüsi around the early 1980s, when he made his living as a street vendor selling flowers in Zürich. As seen here, these photos by Evelyne Hoster Meeuwse were on display in the exhibition “Jeder kann nicht machen was er will” (“We cannot do whatever we please”) at the Kunstmuseum Thurgau, from October 1, 2023 through June 9, 2024. Photos ©Evelyne Hoster Meeuwse. This photo of the items on display by Edward M. Gómez for brutjournal

While it’s true that Dubuffet and earlier researchers in Europe were among the first observers to appreciate the creations of certain psychiatric-hospital patients who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia or other mental illnesses, according to the French artist, who developed a set of criteria by which to assess and identify works of art brut, using the term he coined in the mid-1940s, being affected by such ailments never was or is a necessary condition of a genuine art brut creator.