Raw Vision Magazine

Born from Jean Dubuffet’s extraordinary donation of outsider creations, the Collection de l’Art Brut celebrates its 50th anniversary, looking back and forward The elegant, understated building that houses the Collection de l’Art Brut sits in the urban landscape of the Swiss city of Lausanne. Originally a patrician residence dating fromthe eighteenth century, it has been the home of the Collection – which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year – since 1976.

With metal scraps and the eye of a perfectionist, Polish born creator Stanley Szwarc crafted thousands of intricately embellished objects, no two ever alike Stanley Szwarc created boxes, vases, crosses and other objects from cast-off stainless steel, decorating each with geometric accents of spotwelded quarter-inch dots, circles of bigger diameters, cylinders and squares, perforated strips, and a variety of other shapes.

Austrian Johann Meduna carved wood obsessively – almost to its destruction – in an ongoing dialogue with the material, himself and possibly the viewer Ever since the construction of Vienna’s Narrenturm (Fool's Tower) – Europe’s first purpose-built psychiatric institution – in 1784, during the reign of Emperor Joseph II, science has undertaken research into the difference between so-called sick and healthy people, especially in relation to the brain.

Six decades into a life shaped by hardship and resilience, Hélène N. began to draw women’s faces, and did not stop for a decade From a small, wheeled shopping trolley, a smiling septuagenarian pulls out sheets of paper, nearly a hundred tightly framed portraits of women. A small crowd begins to gather as she lays her drawings out on the ground. The largest are roughly A4 in size; others defy measurement, their edges irregular, cut and re-cut.

French artist Chomo scraped away all formal teaching to conjure up the Village d’Art Préludien, a unique place of creation, preservation and refuge On Thursday, September 10, 2009, the Halle SaintPierre was alive with the buzz of a major opening night. The work of “Chomo” was being shown by art critic Laurent Danchin and the museum’s director Martine Lusardy in the exhibition “Le Débarquement Spirituel” (The Spiritual Landing).

Gravedigger and blues musician James ”Son Ford” Thomas moulded clay skulls and coffins that reflect his thoughts on death and the afterlife The joys of life and the grim shadow of death were never far apart for James “Son Ford” Thomas. One of the many nicknames the Mississippi Delta blues musician picked up was “Cairo” for his evocative take on Cairo Blues, recorded by Melvin “Lil Son” Jackson in 1949.

Using a unique painting technique, Zambian artist Aubrey Chali expresses his thoughts on the value of tradition in the modern age When people see Aubrey Chali’s artwork for the first time they often wonder what medium they are looking at. Criss-crossing lines and dots of different shades, painstakingly applied by hand without using tools such as a ruler or maulstick, give an impression closer to that of needlework or mosaic than painting on canvas.

First published: March 2026 Vermont artist Margaret Mousseau lets the stories of her past flow out of her through unearthly, twisted, vine-like strokes of colour Winding lines in vivid coloured pencil connect figures, forms and curious creatures in the drawings of US artist Margaret Mousseau. Each work is layered with pattern and detail that draw a viewer in to notice things entwined in the scene, like the tendril of some otherworldly flora or the multicoloured body of a bird.

First published: March 2026 With its unique roots and context, outsider art in Canada was undefined and overlooked for years – but now it is coming out of the shadows Canada is new to the conversation about outsider art. The terms “primitive” , “folk” , “naïve” and “provincial” were once used to describe idiosyncratic creators like Quebec artist Arthur Villeneuve and Toronto-based Scottie Wilson, with the term “outsider” only introduced comparatively recently.

First published: March 2026 Maps of astronomy or astrology, medieval pilgrimage or Aboriginal songlines? Tasmanian-born synesthete Shane Drinkwater provides no key to his art A circle orbited by rings of numbers. A latitude and longitude of shapes on parchment paper, implying an ancient map. The cartographic works of Shane Drinkwater suggest linear stories but then defy them.