About the gallery
We are opening the Art brut Prague Gallery as the first exhibition space in Prague focused exclusively on the work of artists who, for various reasons, are unable or unwilling to join the mainstream art scene.
“Here, things are raised proudly
and more stabbingly,
the world is full of edges
on which we have
hurt ourselves many times.”
The quote, taken from Josef Čapek’s groundbreaking book The Most Modest Art, will greet all visitors at the entrance as a foreshadowing of the type of work they will encounter here.
To clearly define the gallery, the name was chosen after the painter Jean Dubuffet’s famous term art brut – usually translated in Czech as “art in its raw state”.
But not all the artists the gallery will represent necessarily fall into the category of art brut as it is usually conceived. Some of them, for various reasons, become outsiders, not even classifiable in this field.
The selection of the artists is basically conditioned by the absence of any conscious calculation in their work aimed at achieving success in the world of contemporary art.
The gallery also wants to support its artists by making their works available for sale.
Exhibitions
Eugène Lambourdière known as « Maurice »
The Sky Is Not Filling Up
Le ciel ne fait pas le plein
Nebe nečerpá plnou
17. 4.–10. 5. 2025
Curator of the exhibition: Éric Gauthier
In the collaboration with the Galerie du moineau écarlate in Paris.
Art Brut has often been created on the street—and the Paris-based artist known as Maurice is no exception. Having endured over thirty-five years of homelessness, he spent much of his life sleeping in squats or makeshift shelters.
Born in 1949 in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe—a French Caribbean island—Maurice moved to Paris with his parents at the age of eleven. Nearly seventy years old when art brut collector Éric Gauthier encountered him at Gare du Nord in 2017, Maurice’s unique ideas and creative output immediately captured Gauthier’s attention. Deeply impressed, Gauthier offered Maurice support, a place to live, and a platform to share his work with the public through the Galerie du moineau écarlate (Scarlet Sparrow), which he also founded that same year.
Maurice doesn’t see himself as an artist, but rather as an inventor. His primary focus is on designing drones and other flying machines powered by unlimited energy. He creates detailed technical drawings and diverse forms of documentation, including three-dimensional models. His inventive scope, however, extends across all fields of human knowledge—from medicine to astrophysics. Through his illustrations and writings, he seeks to solve profound mysteries such as the Bermuda Triangle, the nature of the universe’s cycle, and the concept of a fourth dimension. In Maurice’s personal mythology, modern science and technology merge with esoteric and Masonic symbolism, often referencing the Bible, the Qur’an, the Torah, and other sacred texts.
Maurice is especially fascinated by photocopying, which serves as a foundation for his ongoing interventions—inscribing, redrawing, coloring, or layering photographs. “Collage gives him the opportunity to stage himself by means of self-portraits imbued with humor and irony,” wrote French theorist Céline Delavaux in her 2019 catalogue Stranger than Kindness. “But also, and more importantly, to continue to profess his very own truths about religion…”
The work of Eugène Lambourdière, known as Maurice, is featured in major Art Brut collections, including abcd in Paris and Traeger Saint Silvestre in Portugal.
With thanks to Céline Delavaux and Éric Gauthier.
About the authors
The main circle of authors is formed by the persons who create in the Studio of Joyful Creation at Letná: Dagmar Filípková, Šárka Hojaková, Dominik Jirsa, Jarmila Jandová, Marie Kohoutková, Václav Kuklík, Marie Kůsová, Lorenzo, Karel Pajma, Lukáš Paleček, Vojtěch Proske, George Radojčič, Iveta Riminka Filí, Ladislav Svoboda will be presented here.
However, internationally known names such as Anna Zemánková or Zdeněk Košek will also be represented. Other authors who have already gained attention include Hana Fousková, La Inthonkaew, Ota Prouza, Helena Skalická and Tomáš Krupka.
Practical information
The gallery will be open five afternoons a week, Tuesday to Saturday 2 – 7pm.
www.artbrutpraha.cz
artbrut.praha@gmail.com
+420 606 028 942 (during opening hours)
+420 602 646 665 (out of hours)
Postal address: Galerie Art brut Praha, Resslova 300/6,
120 00 Praha 2 – Nové Město.
About the place and the founder
The gallery acquired its space after the renovation of a long unused technical building at St. Wenceslas Church in Zderaz.
The operator is the Altán Art association, which has so far been active mainly in Letná: in 2013 it opened the Studio of Joyful Creation here as the first Czech studio providing facilities for artists falling into the category of art brut, and in 2017 it opened up also to the wider public by establishing the ART Cultural and Community Centre, where senior citizens and people with disabilities develop their artistic interests together. Vladimír Drábek is the main representative of the association. More information on the website www.altanart.cz .
Curator
Jaromír Typlt (1973) is a poet, performer and essayist. During 2000-2010 he worked in Liberec as a curator of photography and contemporary art exhibitions at the Small Exhibition Hall and then at the U Rytíře Gallery. Since the end of the 1990s he has also helped to promote the work of overlooked authors, publishing the first book on Zdeněk Košek (2001), literary texts by Hana Fousková, František Novák and many others. In 2018, he started cooperation with the association Altán Art. He has long focused on the topic of “écrits bruts” – written expressions in art brut.
Gallery partners
Studio of Joyful Creation at Letná
Czechoslovak Hussite Church in Prague 2 – New Town
Graphic studio chapter
abcd praha
Media partners
Analogon
Revolver Revue
Souvislosti
I am convinced that a considerable circle of artists, those interested in art brut and the
Pavel Konečný, art brut collector
professional public can form around the Art Brut Prague gallery in a very short time. The
project is a positive response not only to initiatives stemming from the vibrant undercurrent of
our spontaneous creativity, but also responds to calls from foreign cultural institutions to
strengthen the voice of outsider art, including by improving intercultural cooperation and
dialogue across European borders.