La Fabuloserie, Dicy, Yonne (89)

La Fabuloserie is an amazing museum in Dicy in the Yonne that has been open since 1983. It was the brainchild of architect and sculptor Alain Bourbonnais (1925–88) to display a collection of 'art hors-les-normes', or art brut, best translated in English as 'outsider art'. There is a wealth of art here by many artists, and I only have room here to show a few of my favourites. Visits here are in two stages, in no particular order: an open visit to the 'maison-musée', and a guided tour of the 'jardin habité'.

The most amazing exhibit of the whole collection must certainly be Pierre Avezard's Manège, which is not just a mechanical merry-go-round but a whole series of objects moving around when set in motion. Pierre (1909–92) is more commonly called 'Petit Pierre', who was deaf with a serious eye complaint and was seen by some people as stupid. Le Manège shows how wrong people can be, and the objects here are made from recycled materials. Petit Pierre worked on a farm, which not only taught him many things about the mechanical workings of objects, but allowed him to make tools for his environment, even including a washing machine. Le Manège is many things, but also in part an autobiograhy, depicting life on the farm as Petit Pierre saw it. These are just a few of the working parts, and there are clips on Youtube showing Le Manège in motion: an unbelievable sight.

Alain Bourbonneau himself has his collection Les Turbulents here: creatures from nighmares:

Francis Marshall (born 1947), was from a comfortable background, taught younger children from a deprived area in Normandy, and was horrified by the poverty, social rejection and inbreeding he saw around him. He invented Mauricette and constructed different stages in her background. Of particular interest to me are the ropes which entrap the characters, caught up in their own environment from which there is no escape, but also of course – as many other more 'privileged' people – entrapped mentally and physically by their own limitations:

Art brut (Outsider Art) and associated:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Rémy Callot, Carvin (Nord)
Carine Fol (ed.): L'Art brut en question | Outsider Art in Question
Kevin Duffy, Ashton-in-Makerfield
The Art Brut of Léopold Truc, Cabrières d'Avignon (34)
Le Musée Extraordinaire de Georges Mazoyer, Ansouis (34)
Le Facteur Cheval's Palais Idéal, Hauterives (26)
The Little Chapel, Guernsey
Museum of Appalachia, Norris, Clinton, Tennessee
Ed Leedskalnin in Homestead, Florida
La Fabuloserie, Dicy, Yonne (89)
Street Art City, Lurcy-Lévis, Allier (03)
The Outsider Art of Jean Linard, Neuvy-deux-Clochers (18)
Jean Bertholle, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Jean-Pierre Schetz, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Jules Damloup, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Camille Vidal, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Pascal Verbena, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
The Art of Theodore Major
Edward Gorey's Yarmouth Port, Cape Cod, MA
Marcel Vinsard in Pontcharra, Isère (38)
Vincent Capt: Écrivainer : La langue morcelée de Samuel Daiber
The Amazing World of Danielle Jacqui, Roquevaire (13)
Alphonse Gurlie, Maisonneuve (07)
Univers du poète ferrailleur, Lizio, Morbihan
Les Rochers sculptés de L'Abbé Fouré, Rothéneuf, Saint-Malo
Robert Tatin in Cossé-le-Vivien, Mayenne
René Raoul's Jardin de pierre in Pléhédel, Côtes d'Armor
La Demeure du Chaos, Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d'Or, Rhône (69)
Emmanuel Arredondo in Varennes Vauzelles, Nièvre (58)
Musée de la Luna Rossa (revisited), Caen, Calvados (14)
La Fontaine de Château-Chinon, Nièvre (58)

Marguerite Audoux, Sainte-Montaine, Cher (18)

Marguerite Audoux (née Donquichote) was a working-class novelist who was born in 1863 in Sancoins (Cher) and died in Saint-Raphaël (Var) in 1937. She and her sister Madeleine were in effect orphaned when Marquerite was three, and they were both sent to the Hôpital général de Bourges orphanage, where they spent several years. She was later sent to a farm where she worked as a shepherd in Sainte-Montaine, near Aubigny-sur-Nère. She later moved to Paris, where she became a seamstress. She went on to become the friend of various novelists, and her own autobiogaphical novel Marie-Claire (1910) was a huge success, winning the Prix Femina. A number of the furnishings, including her bed, in the Musée Marguerite Audoux (at the back of the Mairie, the former school) in Sainte-Montaine were her own.

Colette in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, Yonne (89)

(Sidonie Gabrielle) Colette (1873–1954) was born in and grew up in this house in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, which the plaque states is a major 'character' in her books.

The Musée Colette very near Colette's birthplace. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit either of them.

Colette's signature is all over Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye.

Street Art City, Lurcy-Lévis, Allier (03)

The site on which Street Art City now stands near Lurcy-Lévis, Allier (03) was originally used by France télécom from 1982 to 1992, when it was left abandoned until Sylvie, concerned about the waste of the decaying buildings, hit on the idea of a home for the international street art, the graffiti such as she'd seen on and around trains, in streets, etc. Consequently, Street Art City was born on 22 January 2015. The above animal is Bijou, Sylvie's dog, mascot and part of the security staff. I took quite a number of photos here, far more than I can reasonably post, but those I do post here are among my favourites. They are all credited to Street Art City: a truly remarkable place! I notice that in an online comment that someone came from the Vosges especially to see Street Art City: so what? One of the reasons we visited New Zealand was to see Frank Sargeson's bach! Street Art City is worth going a huge distance to see, and we wouldn't even have been aware of it if the curator of the Musée Émile Guillaumin hadn't raved about it. What are you waiting for? Go see this world of wonders!

Cray One, it says in the leaflet (mercifully in French, so no translation blunders), is one of the pioneers of the eighties movement, and this painting is full of the codes, or let's say the symbols, of urban art.

I love this contribution from Damien-Paul Gal, 'Dans quel monde Vuitton', a pun on 'Dans quel monde vit-on ?',  or 'What kind of world are we living in?', and the answer is clearly in consumerist hell: Gal's sentence is full of commercial images, such as Macdonald's, Shell, Nike, etc. And the main 'attack' seems to be on the supermarket chain Atac!

German artist Costwo's painting of Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête) was executed in a week by spray can alone.

A haunting portrait from French artist Ted Nomad, from Mâcon.

Photo-realism from Simpleg.

This mural by Snake is one of the largest.

From Argentina, Caro Pepe's eye work.

Finally, it would just be obscene not to allow Bucky (Buckminster Fuller, of course) to sneak in.

Art brut (Outsider Art) and associated:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Rémy Callot, Carvin (Nord)
Carine Fol (ed.): L'Art brut en question | Outsider Art in Question
Kevin Duffy, Ashton-in-Makerfield
The Art Brut of Léopold Truc, Cabrières d'Avignon (34)
Le Musée Extraordinaire de Georges Mazoyer, Ansouis (34)
Le Facteur Cheval's Palais Idéal, Hauterives (26)
The Little Chapel, Guernsey
Museum of Appalachia, Norris, Clinton, Tennessee
Ed Leedskalnin in Homestead, Florida
La Fabuloserie, Dicy, Yonne (89)
Street Art City, Lurcy-Lévis, Allier (03)
The Outsider Art of Jean Linard, Neuvy-deux-Clochers (18)
Jean Bertholle, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Jean-Pierre Schetz, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Jules Damloup, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Camille Vidal, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Pascal Verbena, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
The Art of Theodore Major
Edward Gorey's Yarmouth Port, Cape Cod, MA
Marcel Vinsard in Pontcharra, Isère (38)
Vincent Capt: Écrivainer : La langue morcelée de Samuel Daiber
The Amazing World of Danielle Jacqui, Roquevaire (13)
Alphonse Gurlie, Maisonneuve (07)
Univers du poète ferrailleur, Lizio, Morbihan
Les Rochers sculptés de L'Abbé Fouré, Rothéneuf, Saint-Malo
Robert Tatin in Cossé-le-Vivien, Mayenne
René Raoul's Jardin de pierre in Pléhédel, Côtes d'Armor
La Demeure du Chaos, Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d'Or, Rhône (69)
Emmanuel Arredondo in Varennes Vauzelles, Nièvre (58)
Musée de la Luna Rossa (revisited), Caen, Calvados (14)
La Fontaine de Château-Chinon, Nièvre (58)

Claude Tillier in Nevers, Nièvre (58)

'CLAUDE

TILLIER

1801–1844'

Pamphleteer and novelist Claude Tillier has been mentioned below in relation to the bust of him in Clamecy where he was born. Here he is again, in this splendid monument in the Cimetiére Jean-Gautherin in Nevers, where he died.

Émile Guillaumin in Ygrande, Allier (03)

– 

In this house just a few hundred metres from Ygrande, the 'peasant writer' (yes, I know: a terrible expression) Émile Guillaumin (1873–1951), heavily influenced by Eugène Le Roy's Jacquot le croquant, wrote his generally considered masterpiece La Vie d'un simple – not an autobiography but a novel – and received numerous eulogies from many prominent figures of literature. He failed to receive the Goncourt, although he was unsurprisingly supported by Octave Mirbeau.

A reconstruction of Émile Guillaumin's bed, plus his original desk in the foreground.

The Guillaumin family, circa 1930s.

The monument to Émile Guillaumin in the centre of Ygrande.

The grave of Émile Guillaumin and his wife Marie (née Chalmin). I can find no images of Émile Guillaumin's grave online, so fully welcome Bertrand Beyern's book (or Bible, as we refer to it) for indicating its general whereabouts. Beyern's book is absolutely necessary for anyone interested in where interesting people are buried.

Charles-Louis Philippe in Cérilly, Allier (03)

So, this is the birthplace of the novelist Charles-Louis Philippe (1874–1909), who lived here for twenty-two years and came back every summer: the place inspired his writing. The room we enter is where Philippe was born, and the following room shows his clog-making father's craft.

Charles-Louis's room which became his on the death of his half-sister Félicité. The adjoining room, which was his twin sister Louise's, is now full of information on Charles-Louis.

Two paintings made in 1903 by Charles-Louis Philippe's friend Charles Guérin.

Marie Donadieu, with whom Philippe had a relationship of only several months due to her 'betrayal', and about whom he wrote a book.

Images of Charles-Louis Philippe's grave in Cérilly.

My Charles-Louis Philippe posts:
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Charles-Louis Philippe Birthplace museum and grave
Charles-Louis Philippe: Contes du matin
Charles-Louis Philippe: Dans la petite ville
Charles-Louis Philippe: La Mère et l'enfant | Le Pére Perdrix
Charles-Louis Philippe: Bubu de Montparnasse

François Péron in Cérilly, Allier (03)

'François Péron

(1775–1810)

Savant naturaliste

né et mort à Cérilly

a été inhumé dans ce cimetière.

En 1842, ses restes ont été transférés dans le

monument qui lui est dédié, Place Péron.'

This sculpture at the base of Péron's statue is a reference to his work Voyage de découvertes aux Terres Australes.