Creativity, idiosyncrasy, transposable references.  ________________________________________________________________

Documentation, psychology, measurement, structure.

This study examines an archival document from the Collection de l’Brut, Lausanne in two distinct ways. The first explores a creative practice through symbolism and mark-making in a series of small drawings. The second is a description and explanation (not psychological interpretation) of its intent.

1.

The creative practice of Aloïse Corbaz (1886, Lausanne - 1964, Gimel-sur-Morges, Switzerland) developed over nearly forty years, combining a distinct use of found/alternative materials with traditional drawing materials. She also developed a rich symbolic language of personal signifiers interwoven with astute cultural references. Often with authoritative, yet erotic, female figures central, her boldly complex compositions resonate with personal and feminine power. Collected and exhibited in her lifetime, Corbaz has long been considered a seminal artist of l’Art Brut, the European genre cultivated by French artist Jean Dubuffet in the 1940s.  

The collection of eight sketches/studies below allows a concise introduction and exploration of particular symbols and idiosyncratic styles of Corbaz’s oeuvre, and is archetypal of her multifaceted potency of depicting femininity. Completed in 1948, following Corbaz’s most prolific years (1941-1946), the sketches were informed by an established aesthetic and conceptual consideration. Her first solo exhibition and her first monograph, published by the Compagnie de l’Art Brut were also in 1948. Dubuffet said of Corbaz’s practice:  I believe that Aloïse's vast tapestry with a thousand shutters can be regarded as the only truly resplendent manifestation, in painting, of the truly feminine pulsation.[1]

Amongst these eight sketches, feminine figures dominate, illuminating celestial, mythical, and regal roles. While these drawings address more prevailing feminine portrayals, represented in Corbaz’s wider oeuvre are specific historic and cultural figures, including Élisabeth de Cerenville, Mary, Queen of Scots, and Marie Antoinette. A haloed woman with an infant is evocative of Madonna and Christ child, while a woman with a beast body feels authoritative and echoes the substantiality of Sphinx. This figurative depiction also dons a crown. The yellow wigs and crowns on the figures in the second and third sketches are evocative of larger, more complicated works by Corbaz that weave direct references to international royalty and societal figures via fashionable symbolism. Also portrayed in these studies is a trio of erotic mermaids next to a trio of women holding books. This juxtaposition is emblematic of her oeuvre which simultaneously celebrates and explores women as both powerful and sexual. The representation of men is absent from this series. While Corbaz rarely focused solely on men in her work, lovers or couples (of men and women) are also significant to her work.

Piercing, pupilless, blue eyes are steady and iconic in Corbaz’s women and are abundantly demonstrated here. Noted once by Corbaz as them being “blind to rational life”[2], the cerulean almond shapes read as magnetic and energetic anchor points compositionally, while also offering intense moments of exchange. An almost hypnagogic empathy is struck between her women and the viewer. Conjointly significant to her aesthetic is women with bare breasts, often drawn (with varying levels of detail when comparing this set of drawings with more detailed compositions) with dense red circles atop. These redbuds are camellia flowers, a repeated motif and concept for Corbaz representing love, madness, and the physical world.

While a simple crescent moon and view of the Earth depart from female representation, they somehow speak to Corbaz’s theatrical sensibility. Her most significant work, Le Cloisonne de theatre (1950-51), is an elaborate 14-meter long work composed as a three-act play with distinct scenes. Considering these eight squared sketches dramatically, the series fittingly opens with a view from the Earth to the skies and closes with a celestial view from the heavens.