NEW YORK, NY.- Photo | Brut: Collection Bruno Decharme & Compagnie is on view at the American Folk Art Museum from January 24, 2021 through June 6, 2021. Gathering works from the early years of photography through present day, the exhibition reveals the critical potential of a relatively unexplored area of art by the self-taught.

“I can think of no better way to kick-off the American Folk Art Museum’s 60th anniversary than with PHOTO | BRUT,” said Jason T. Busch, Director and CEO of the Museum. “Valérie Rousseau’s visionary research has led to a breath-taking, multi-media presentation that will break new ground and provide an irresistible experience for the Museum’s guests.”

The exhibition features nearly four hundred works of art by forty artists, all of which are divided into four thematic groups that address sexuality and intimacy, appropriation and social commentary, gender fluidity and the notion of identity, and connections with invisible and uncontrollable forces. Aside from traditional photographs, Photo | Brut also gathers collages made from printed materials, artworks that rely on the photographic process, digital images, and slides that were never developed into printed photographs. Dr. Valérie Rousseau, Senior Curator at the Museum, organized the exhibition with filmmaker and collector Bruno Decharme, in collaboration with Paula Aisemberg, Barbara Safarova, and Sam Stourdzé.

“These creators stand out for the inventiveness of their art-making and their provocative images, which defy the traditional boundaries of art history,” said Rousseau. “With fresh insight and innovative perspectives into the medium, they offer a forceful counterpoint and a parallel narrative to the field of photography.”

Included in the exhibition are photographs by Morton Bartlett, Marcel Bascoulard, Lee Godie, Norma Oliver, and Miroslav Tichý, as well as projections of never-before-printed images by Eugene Von Bruenchenhein and the Instagram transformations of Ichiwo Sugino. Also featured are assemblages and collages made of photographs by Steve Ashby, Felipe Jesus Consalvos, and Kasuo Handa, and works by Henry Darger and Leopold Strobl that rely heavily on the photographic process. The objects in the exhibition have been selected from the growing art brut photography collection of filmmaker Bruno Decharme, as well as from the AFAM, public institutions, and private collections.