Since Van Gogh, some art theoreticians, like the French artist Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985), have claimed that there is but  a thin line between insanity and creativity. “For me, insanity is super sanity. The normal is psychotic. Normal means lack of imagination, lack of creativity,” claimed Dubuffet, who coined the term and the concept of ‘Art Brut’. This ‘Raw Art’ designates work created by artists with no formal education, also known as ‘Outsiders’ in the US. Indeed, Dubuffet was the first to go round psychiatric institutions in France and Switzerland collecting paintings and sculptures produced by the inmates.

Today, faithful to Debuffet’s precepts, Paris-based Galerie Impaire exhibits the work of mentally and physically disabled artists – showing that ‘Art Brut’ holds its own today. The current show, ‘George and Mona’ displays the work of Ike Morgan (b.1958), who was diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia at an early age and spent 23 years at the Austin State Hospital. During his time at the mental ward he obsessively painted thousands of portraits of the same two illustrious faces – George Washington, as seen on a dollar bill, and the Mona Lisa, glimpsed, legend has it, on a refrigerator door magnet. “Repetition is a common trait among artists with mental disabilities, it is a comforting fixation,” explains gallery director Tom Di Maria. “For all we know, Andy Warhol could have been slightly autistic.”

Morgan paints on large canvases, using mainly fluorescent acrylics and occasional pastels, thickly applied. The face of his two subjects dominates each painting, eyes staring obsessively across a maze of random hatching spread across the faces. Washington's powdered wig comes in many shapes, colours and sizes as does the legendary Florentine landscape behind La Gioconda. Mona is at times as blonde as Marilyn and George, on occasion, turns African-American, like Morgan himself. The rest of the gallery features painters sponsored by the parent organisation – the non-profit, Californian-based Creative Growth Centre. Inspired by Dubuffet’s philosophy, it provides material to artists with various disabilities, but no formal training (outside basic instruction), allowing them to express themselves free of learned artistic prejudice. The works are shown in conventional art settings such as museums and galleries, side-by-side with trained, professional artists – such as Creative Growth artist Dan Miller who showed his work at the MOMA, New York, in the spring of 2008.  Galerie Impaire shows work that is remarkable in more ways than one. Take Terri Bowden, from California, who is almost totally blind. She learned to read with sufferers of albinism, who, because of the lack of melanin in their eyes (as well as skin and hair), experience sight difficulties. The years spent with these patients were to inspire Bowden who nearly exclusively draws albino animals and vegetables, including bananas, cats and rabbits, with translucent white skin and pink eyes. All her paintings, including several of Michael Jackson, portray the sitters as porcelain-skinned albinos.

Dwight Mackintosh (1906-1999) was institutionalized from the ages of 16 to 75 at the Synoma State Hospital for severe autism. He spent years writing in an invented unintelligible language, but also developed a very personal drawing style. A seminal experience seems to have been an x-ray session of his throat that he underwent as a young child draws – his multi-layered representation of figures and objects seeks out their inner workings. The obsessive series of masterful drawings in the show display precise, meticulous felt-tip black lines, which sometimes reminds one of Saul Steinberg. They are a window on a exceptionally rich and intricate private world. “Many artists are more interested in the act of painting than the actual objet they are attempting to represent” Tom Di Maria reflects. “When they finish a piece, they just want to make another one.” The sense of ownership is different, the piece doesn’t become objectified in the way it does with professional artists, as they tend to lose interest in the painting as soon as it is finished, Di Maria explains.

The show at the Galerie Impaire  provides a welcome respite from the sometimes tedious and frequently incomprehensible contemporary art scene. “My definition of Art Brut is that it doesn’t respond to art history,” says Di Maria. “Today, art is so referential, so cynical. The art we show allows viewers to make a judgment free of cultural constraints.” Something of a revolution on the highly judgmental Parisian scene.
 

'George and Mona' at Galerie Impaire until July 26 at 47 rue de Lancry, 75010, Metro Jacques Bonsergent