LAUSANNE.- Laure Pigeon (1882–1965) started drawing at the age of 53, and her body of work was only discovered after her death. Her creations, saved from destruction, were subsequently acquired by Jean Dubuffet. The Collection de l’Art Brut likely holds the entirety of her output: a little over 400 drawings, many contained in notebooks, and produced over the course of 30 years.

Like fellow spiritualist artists Madge Gill, Jeanne Tripier, Augustin Lesage and Raphaël Lonné, Pigeon believed that she had been “chosen” to convey messages from the beyond and claimed that her hands were guided by an outside entity. As a starting point for each piece, she would use a Ouija board to spell out the missive from the spirits letter by letter, relinquishing all control over what she was writing. Next, she would set the board aside and let her hand wander across the page of its own accord, producing a composition of interwoven texts and drawings. Through this process, Pigeon tapped into her unconscious, resurfacing memories that merged with products of her imagination.

Pigeon’s oeuvre can broadly be divided into two periods. Her early works feature interlacing lines that stretch and wind across the page like woven threads, tracing shapes and the outlines of letters. The drawings she produced from 1953 onwards, meanwhile, are dominated by the colour blue in all its shades: from the lightest tones to darker hues sometimes verging on black. These later pieces include various motifs – such as compact masses, dancing plants and animals, initials and names – mixed in with the figures and a long line of masked or veiled female silhouettes. Despite their variety, Dubuffet saw the same “inherently poetic inspiration” behind all of Pigeon’s works.

Pigeon’s art has regularly been displayed as part of the Collection de l’Art Brut’s permanent exhibition. It also featured in one solo show, held at the museum in 1978. In 2014, the museum published The Art Brut Fascicle No. 25, a special edition of its regular publication dedicated entirely to the work of this previously little-studied artist who is nevertheless a major figure in the history of Art Brut.

This new exhibition features a large number of Pigeon’s works, including some that have never been shown before, and all attesting to the artist’s visual energy, assured hand and keen sense of composition.

Blue, in all its forms, was the vehicle for Pigeon’s creative endeavours.

Curated by Anic Zanzi, curator at the Collection de l’Art Brut