Augustin Lesage
1876-1954, FRANCE
THE TOWERING ARCHITECTURES OF AUGUSTIN LESAGE SEEM TO DRAW FROM ANCIENT ICONOGRAPHY; YET THE ARTIST CLAIMED THAT HE WAS NEITHER AN ARTIST NOR THE AUTHOR OF HIS PRODUCTION. AS A HEALER, THIS FORMER MINER HAD BEEN GUIDED BY VOICES TO PAINT THE BEYOND. HIS HIGHLY PERSONAL PRACTICE DEVELOPED INTO MONUMENTAL COMPOSITIONS, FILLED WITH MYSTICAL, RELIGIOUS AND HISTORICAL REFERENCES AND PERFORMED IN PUBLIC TO CONVERT THE UNINITIATED - AND REVEAL AN ULTIMATE TRUTH.
The Encyclopedic Palace, main exhibition of the 55th Venice Biennale (Venice) 2013
Everything #1, The Museum of Everything, Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli (Turin) 2010
Augustin Lesage, Elmar Trenkwalder: Les inspirés, La Maison Rouge/Fondation Antoine de Galbert (Paris) 2008
Outsiders, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre (London) 1979
The Museum of Everything, exhibition catalogue, Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli & Electa, Turin/Milan, 2010
Roulin, Geneviève. “Raw Classics: Augustin Lesage.” Raw Vision, U.K., issue number 26, spring 1999
Peiry, Lucienne, Art Brut: The Origins of Outsider Art. Paris: Flammarion, distributed in the U.S.A. by Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.; second English-language edition, 2006; originally published in French as L’Art Brut, Paris: Flammarion; 1997
Deroeux, Didier, Annick Notter, Michel Thévoz et al., Augustin Lesage 1876-1954, Philippe Sers Éditeur/Vilo, Paris, 1988
Thévoz, Michel, L’Art brut, Albert Skira, Geneva, 1975
