1869-1944 · Paris, France
A Parisian medium who believed she was Joan of Arc returned, and produced ink and embroidery like intergalactic dispatches, mostly from inside an asylum.
The life
Tripier worked Paris shop counters for decades before spiritualism claimed her in her fifties. Messages arrived, then missions: she recorded communications from the beyond, declared herself the reincarnation of Joan of Arc among others, and was committed to the Maison Blanche asylum in 1934, where she continued her planetary work, as she called it, until her death in 1944. Dubuffet collected her early, and Lausanne keeps her flame.
The work
Automatic writing that slides into drawing, ink washes of storms and faces, and embroideries stitched from whatever thread the asylum yielded, dense, knotted constellations that she considered functional instruments of cosmic justice. The needlework alone puts most tapestry to shame.
Why we love them
Total conviction, zero permission. Her file said patient; her paperwork said intergalactic magistrate. We know whose stationery we prefer.
Go deeper
- Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne
- Where to see outsider art, our full list of museums and collections.
- The glossary, if any of the terms here are new.
Kindred spirits
Madge Gill1882-1961, London, UK
Aloïse Corbaz1886-1964, Lausanne, Switzerland
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Untrained and unstoppable, like them? Like us?