Aloïse

16 - Walkyrie, 1946-1947

While in Switzerland, I came across the work of Aloïse Corbaz. Aloïse was born in 1886 in the city of Lausanne, Switzerland. She worked as a teacher and later a governess, until she was diagnosed with Schizophrenia at the age of 32. She was put in a psychiatric hospital soon after. Aloise began to write and draw two years following her institutionalization. In 1936, the director of the hospital and her doctor began to take interest in her work.

The Coronation of Napoleon and Marie Louise by Pius VII, 1917-1924, one of her earlier works

Eleven years later her art was discoverd by Jean Dubuffet, an artist and collecter of Art Brut, or Outsider Art. Art Brut is French for raw art, a term generally used to describe self taught artists illustrating unconventional ideas. The stream of Art Brut that Dubuffet was interested in was those of psychiatric patients.

Bataille de fleurs Elisabeth, 1941-1951

The words that come to mind for me when thinking of Aloise's work are: garish, vibrant, and disturbing. However, none of those aspects are extreme to the point of turning me away, but more to the point of reeling me in (or so I thought). Her style of drawing is reminiscent of a child, but the subjects, contrastingly, are often slightly erotic (save the good assortment of cakes and such).

Tourte du Maroc, 1951-1960



  



Portrait double de figures couronnées, 1951-1960

The exhbitition had 10 rooms full of Aloise's drawings and paintings and the occasional collage. Thalia and I swept through 5 before running out of time/getting completely overwhelmed. After a while, they all began to run together.

42 - Esméralda, 1946-1947

Thalia and I tried to figure out why in the majority of her portraits, the eyes were always blue, (was it show purity, innocence, depression perhaps?) but then we found out they were just sunglasses, and the significance was hiding despair or something.

 clockwise from top left, L’homme à l’écusson et la femme blonde (1947-1948), Bouquet de feux d'artifice (1946), Luther (1949), Sphinx aviatrice d'Othello de Berlin (1946).

The wide array of mediums Aloise used made me think that aside from the fact that drawing and painting may have been a pastime she enjoyed, she made art because she had to, using whatever materials she had around. I keep thinking about this sentence from one of David Sedaris's essays about how his sister, Tiffany, is "someone who will simply die if she doesn't express herself." I don't think this directly links with Aloise's story, but I do think that as Aloise's mental conditions worsened, art became an important way for her to show people the world that she saw. A world filled with romance, luxury, and sweets, along with depression, anxiety and insanity.