Lunatic Swiss Art in Lausanne's Art Brut Collection by Steenie Harvey Disturbing paintings of human heads drooping on flower stalks… mask-like faces composed of seashells… regiments of black, silhouetted figures all with skulls turned to the left. You don't have to be mad, bad, or eccentric to have your art displayed in Lausanne's Art Brut collection-but it does help if you're a bit of a weirdo. A mythical sea monster for your living room? 
| Some of the Outsider art featured in the gallery is less disturbing than others, such as these pieces by François Portrat. Photo courtesy of Art Brut Collection |
According to the gallery guide, Art Brut (Outsider Art) is mostly produced by loners, mavericks, prisoners, psychiatric patients, and people on society's fringe who never really integrated into the community. Although you may not want one of the mythical sea monsters by the murderous "Prisoner of Basel" adorning your living room, the gallery begs the question as to why critics consider some art to be worth millions, yet judge other works as disposable. Tracy Emin* was feted for her unmade bed, but the art world ignored François Portrat- perhaps because he was a blue-collar guy who spent his life working in a chemical factory. Here in the Art Brut museum, you can marvel at his obsession with film stars and historic figures. The faces of Brigitte Bardot, Napoleon, and many others peer out from cement frames studded with broken glass and fragments of dinner plates. Portrat collected the material for his frames from Parisian flea markets and junkyards. I bought a 15-Swiss-franc ($12) poster of Carlo's silhouettes of vaguely human shapes with holes in their heads. I don't know Carlo's second name, and neither does the gallery. For most of his life, Carlo was confined to a lunatic asylum in Verona, Italy. Art Brut Collection, 11 avenue des Bergières, Lausanne, Switzerland; tel. +41 21-315-2570, website: www.artbrut.ch. Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. Entrance: 10 Swiss francs ($8). To get there, take the number 3 bus across from Lausanne railway station and get off at the Beaulieu stop. *Tracy Emin: one of the most notorious of the Britartists group, or Young British Artists. Much of her work has attracted controversy-including her piece "My Bed," which literally consists of her rumpled bed and various (unmentionable) bedside objects. | 
