Alexandre LEVRAT (1896-1986). Adam and Eve, circa 1960. 4 wa - Lot 189

Alexandre LEVRAT (1896-1986). Adam and Eve, circa 1960. 4 watercolor drawings, 20.8 x 26 8 cm. Signed with monograms, lower left. Art brut at the Beaux-Arts? Impossible: absolute nonsense. The definition of Art brut definitively closes the door on any school. "Spontaneous and inventive production of works that escape cultural norms. Unlike "learned" art, Art Brut is based on complete instinctive freedom, and is the work of self-taught artists". Larousse emphasizes. Art brut cannot be taught. Not every art school student can create Art brut. A fortiori, Alexandre Levrat (1896-1986), a renowned architect. Levrat studied at L'ENSBA - École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts - which takes in a few painters and mostly architects. The average person might almost think that there's a contradiction here, between the training of artists and that of engineers who have to master the construction of buildings. Remember the buildings of Edifis, the Asterix and Cleopatra character created by Goscinny and Uderzo to caricature what an architect should not be? Let's take a closer look. Most of an architect's training is based on fine arts, drawing and sculpture, not on learned calculations. Everyone learns drawing with application and masters it perfectly. This was particularly true before 1968, when the term "drawing" was understood to mean academicism, spearheaded by the "pompier style". However, it has to be said that the work revealed here is a far cry from the visions of Antiquity by Jean-Léon Gérôme or Prehistory by Fernand Cormon, both famous studio bosses. So, what is it? Is Levrat challenging the definition of Art Brut? For Levrat was chief architect of Bâtiments civils et palais nationaux*, and of the Comité des H.B.M. de la Seine, chief architect at the M.R.U., expert before the Civil Court of the Seine and the Court of Appeal, professor at the École des Travaux Publics, member of the S.A.D.G., Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1960, Croix de Guerre, Officier d'Académie in 1937, Gold Medal of the Comité de Patronage des H.L.M. de la Seine, among others... His calling card was impressive. He also exhibited at the Salon des artistes français in Paris in 1926, and regularly thereafter at the Salon des Indépendants. In these spare moments, he still found time to conceive this secret work, which has remained buried in his drawers to this day. * https://agorha.inha.fr/recherche?terms=Levrat