Is art brut no longer what it used to be? From marginal art produced by marginalised individuals, outside what Dubuffet, the inventor of the term, called ‘suffocating culture’, it is now taking centre stage in the cultural arena, invading the latest Venice Biennale and fetching astronomical prices at auction. Gone are the days when Dubuffet's art brut collection was refused ‘public utility’ status by the City of Paris and had to seek refuge in Lausanne, or when Madeleine Lomel's Aracine collection, also shunned by the capital's museums, became the pride of the LaM in Villeneuve-d'Ascq. The integration by the Musée National d'Art Moderne of the exceptional donation of 921 works belonging to Bruno Decharme, from a monumental collection of 6,000 pieces of art brut dating from the 18th century to the present day, assembled by the filmmaker since the 1970s, means that the 21st century will be brut or it will not be at all.

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