Africa and art brut in the 21st century: A pondering from the margins

Abstract

This article explores the particular aspects of the so-called art brut regarding artistic expressions of African roots. In principle, the plastic arts of the black continent served as an influence for the project of the French painter Jean Dubuffet, who recognized their "primitive" or "wild" values, equating them with the creations made by mental hospital patients. The critique of this categorization inherited from European colonialism is complemented by a brief review of the recent theoretical variations known as outsider art and folk art, which take up the work of Afro-descendants arising from contexts as diverse as Cuba, Ghana or Benin, and impose their sign of globalization on them. Already in the 21st century, Brazil is a peculiar case, because although it is registered in the commercial circuit of art brut, it also has its own tradition of psychotherapeutic art. By focusing on the aesthetic and cultural analysis of the works of two marginal Afro-Brazilian creators (Antônio Roseno de Lima and Arthur Bispo do Rosário), who carried out important projects under adverse conditions and motivated by different reasons, we concluded that creative expression is also an act of resistance that should not be limited to the formulas given by art history or the institutionalized network.