Ian Townsend
22-04-2012, 10:49 AM
In 1979 (may have been 1980) the Hayward Gallery in London put on an exhibition called Outsiders, the first retrospective of Outsider Art in the UK. Needless to say it was incredible and featured a lot of work from the Prinzhorn collection with works from the likes of Adolf Wolfii, Madge Gil and photographs of the outsider environments of Ferdnand Cheval etc.
There were a few works in the exhibition by Augustin Lesage. Huge parchments covered in excessively detailed patterned drawings suggesting heiroglyphs, woven fabric and architecture. Very similar in obssessive detail to Wolfii's work but on a grander scale and intensely disciplined.
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u177/Pattrick_104_2007/Outsider%20Art/lesage2.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u177/Pattrick_104_2007/Outsider%20Art/lesage1.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u177/Pattrick_104_2007/Outsider%20Art/lesage5.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u177/Pattrick_104_2007/Outsider%20Art/2051112740_99c19fed0f_o.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u177/Pattrick_104_2007/Outsider%20Art/2051112750_946ae93aec_o.jpg
The following writing is from the Lines and Colors blog (http://www.linesandcolors.com/2011/08/20/augustin-lesage/)
Augustin Lesage was a French painter associated with “outsider art” (L’Art Brut), art created outside of normal cultural definitions.
A coal miner from the age of 14, Lesage supposedly heard a voice deep in the mine say “One day you’ll be a painter!”, followed by a succession of other voices, some of which he took to be the voice of his sister Mary, who died at the age of three.
He began with “automatic drawing”, a practice the Surrealists employed to produce art directly form the subconscious, but one also associated with communicating with the departed by spiritualists. He moved from there into painting, guided by the voices, and began to produce large scale canvasses in which he explored kalidoscopic images, repetitions of surface patterns and themes of spiritualism and symbolism.
There were a few works in the exhibition by Augustin Lesage. Huge parchments covered in excessively detailed patterned drawings suggesting heiroglyphs, woven fabric and architecture. Very similar in obssessive detail to Wolfii's work but on a grander scale and intensely disciplined.
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u177/Pattrick_104_2007/Outsider%20Art/lesage2.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u177/Pattrick_104_2007/Outsider%20Art/lesage1.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u177/Pattrick_104_2007/Outsider%20Art/lesage5.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u177/Pattrick_104_2007/Outsider%20Art/2051112740_99c19fed0f_o.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u177/Pattrick_104_2007/Outsider%20Art/2051112750_946ae93aec_o.jpg
The following writing is from the Lines and Colors blog (http://www.linesandcolors.com/2011/08/20/augustin-lesage/)
Augustin Lesage was a French painter associated with “outsider art” (L’Art Brut), art created outside of normal cultural definitions.
A coal miner from the age of 14, Lesage supposedly heard a voice deep in the mine say “One day you’ll be a painter!”, followed by a succession of other voices, some of which he took to be the voice of his sister Mary, who died at the age of three.
He began with “automatic drawing”, a practice the Surrealists employed to produce art directly form the subconscious, but one also associated with communicating with the departed by spiritualists. He moved from there into painting, guided by the voices, and began to produce large scale canvasses in which he explored kalidoscopic images, repetitions of surface patterns and themes of spiritualism and symbolism.