Augustin Lesage (August 9, 1876 – February 21, 1954) was a French coal miner who became a painter and artist through the help of what he considered to be spirit voices. His style utilizes patterns and symmetry on a large scale, often accompanied by bright, vibrant colors. He was untrained and is considered an

outsider art Outsider art is art made by self-taught or supposedly naïve artists with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art worlds. In many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Often, outsider art illustrates e ...

ist, part of ''Art Brut''.

Life

Lesage was born in Saint-Pierre-les-Auchel,

Pas-de-Calais Pas-de-Calais (, " strait of Calais"; pcd, Pas-Calés; also nl, Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments ...

, into a family of miners and was sent to work in a coal mine from an early age. In 1911, when he was 35 years old, Lesage claimed he heard a voice speak to him from the darkness of the mine and tell him, "One day you will be a painter". The only contact Lesage had had with the arts at that point in his life was a visit to the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille museum in Lille during his military service. The voice experience prompted him to explore communication with what he believed was the spirit world, and within a year of his first experience Lesage was hearing more voices, this time specifically giving him instructions. The voice told him what to paint, what art supplies to buy and where to find them. It was his belief that the voice speaking to him was the spirit of his little sister who had died at the age of three. On purchasing his first canvas, Lesage mistakenly bought one ten times as large as he had intended. His spirit guides instructed him not to be daunted, but to begin painting. Large canvasses became his chosen format. Lesage went on to develop a highly symmetrical style, drafting detailed patterns and monolithic constructions reminiscent of Egyptian and Oriental architectural forms. Lesage claimed that when starting a new work he never had any idea about what he would paint: "I never have an overview of the entire work at any point of the execution. My guides tell me; ''I surrender to their impulse''". At first Lesage never signed his paintings, and then began to sign them 'Leonardo Da Vinci'. It was only later that he began to add his own signature. From 1912 Lesage began to produce a regular output of paintings. His service in the First World War interrupted his artistic pursuits, but he was able to resume his work in 1916. By 1923, Lesage was able to support himself exclusively with his artistic efforts. The collector

Jean Dubuffet Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (31 July 1901 – 12 May 1985) was a French Painting, painter and sculpture, sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called "low art" and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what ...

integrated Lesage paintings into his collection in 1948, and bought his first "historic" canvas for 50,000 francs in 1964. Lesage is one of the artists featured in the booklet ''Art Brut Art Brut 3'' by Jean Dubuffet in 1964. His work is also categorized as part of the

spiritualist movement Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (when not lowercase) ...

in art. Augustin Lesage paintings are represented in the

Collection de l'Art Brut The Collection de l'art brut (literally "Collection of Raw Art"; sometimes referred to as "Musée de l'art brut") is a museum dedicated to outsider art located in Lausanne, Switzerland. See also * American Visionary Art Museum The American ...

(Outsider Art Collection) in

Lausanne, Switzerland , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...

since its opening in 1975. He was the subject of a retrospective presented at Lausanne in 1989, a catalog was published for the occasion. He is historically the earliest of the "psychic artists" embedded in the Collection de l'Art Brut. His volume of work is very large. At his death, he left about eight hundred paintings. Today, most of his works are held by the

Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art The Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art (LaM), formerly known as Villeneuve d'Ascq Museum of Modern Art, is an art museum in Villeneuve d'Ascq, France. With more than 4,500 artworks on a exhibition area, the LaM is ...

in France.

Gallery

LeSage1.jpg LeSage2.jpg LeSage3.jpg LeSage4.jpg

References

Augustin Lesage (1876-1954)
Galerie St. Etienne, Biography. Accessed October 2013
Augustin Lesage
American Folk Art Museum, Accessed October 2013
Are we looking at a Madman’s Doodles or Messages from another World?
In "C'est Chic" "Featured" on October 1, 2013.

Bibliography

* Collectif Art Brut 3, Art Brut 3, vol. 23, t. 3, Paris,

, 1964, 182 p., p. 8-45 *Lucienne Peiry, L'Art Brut, Paris, Flammarion, 1997 *(en) Geneviève Roulin, Raw Vision, vol. 26, Londres, Raw Vision, 1999, p. Augustin Lesage –Raw Classics *Collectif, Art médiumnique, visionnaire, Messages d’Outre-Monde, Paris, Hoëbeke, 1999 () :catalogue d'une exposition à la Halle Saint-Pierre *John Maizels, L’art brut, l’art outsider et au-delà, Paris, Phaidon, 2003 *Collectif, Augustin Lesage et Elmar Trenkwalder, les Inspirés, Paris, Editions Fage, 2008 :catalogue d'une exposition à la Maison Rouge {{DEFAULTSORT:Lesage, Augustin 1876 births 1954 deaths 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists French male painters French spiritual mediums Outsider art Drawing mediums