André Robillard’s childhood was marked by severe family conflicts. From the age of eight, he was placed in a special education school located within the psychiatric hospital of Fleury-les-Aubrais, near Orléans. Becoming increasingly aggressive, he was institutionalized for mental disorders in 1950. Nevertheless, he seems to have found certain reference points that eventually enabled him to work part-time as an assistant at the hospital’s wastewater treatment plant.
That same year, in 1964, he began constructing weapons and spacecraft from salvaged materials, assembled with tape, electrical wires, or nails. Alongside these objects, he drew rifles, planets, stars, and animals. Jean Dubuffet discovered Robillard’s rifles through Dr. Paul Renard, his psychiatrist.
In 2015, the artist—who considers himself a handyman—was named a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.