Laure Pigeon (1882-1965) was fifty-three years old when she began to draw. Her works, discovered after her death and saved from destruction, were acquired by Jean Dubuffet. The Collection of Art Brut probably holds the entirety of her output, which spans a period of about thirty years and comprises a little over four hundred drawings, many of which are contained in notebooks.
Like Madge Gill, Jeanne Tripier, Augustin Lesage or Raphaël Lonné, Laure Pigeon belongs to the spiritist artists. These women and men entrust the responsibility for their creations to an external entity and feel “designated” by messages coming from beyond. Laure initially relies on the “oui‑ja”, a spiritist method where, letter by letter, the messages dictated by spirits are written. This device acts as a trigger and encourages self‑detachment. Later, Laure Pigeon abandons it to let her hand wander the paper at will, revealing interwoven texts and drawings. The creator is immersed in a state that frees the unconscious, memories resurface and blend with her imaginary world.
In Laure Pigeon’s work, two main types of pieces can be distinguished. In the earlier ones, line dominates, unfolding and coiling, revealing profiles and forming words in its interlaces reminiscent of knitted threads. Then, from 1953 onward, the emergence of blue appears, rendered in luminous or more intense shades, sometimes bordering on black. These drawings display various motifs: compact masses, dancing vegetal or animal forms, initials and names interwoven with figures, as well as a grand procession of masked or veiled female silhouettes. In the eyes of Jean Dubuffet, the “highly poetic breath that inspires them” remains the same.
Regularly shown in the museum’s permanent collection, Laure Pigeon’s work was the subject of a single monographic exhibition, organized in 1978 by the Lausanne institution, which also published a booklet entirely devoted to her graphic output, L’Art Brut no. 25, in 2014; which had generated few specific studies until then.
This new presentation dedicated to this historic figure of Art Brut reveals a large body of works, some unpublished, where graphic power, confidence of gesture, and sense of composition are evident.
In the infinitely blue, Laure Pigeon reveals herself.
Curatorship: Anic Zanzi, curator at the Collection of Art Brut
