Visuel May 2016 • T h e A r t i s t ’ s M a g a z i n e
Jean Dubuffet Coveting the world of Jazz, painting and pure originality. 2016 Annual Artist’s Bulletin Winner!
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Photograph taken on the set of “Coucou Bazar,” with Dubuffet (on the right) and actor (on the left).
J
Story and photos borrowed from: the Artstory.org and DuBuffetfoundation.com.
ean Dubuffet disliked authority
developed a radically new, graphic style, which
from a very early age. He left
he called “Hourloupe,” and would deploy it on
home at 17, failed to complete
many important publicw commissions, but he
his art education, and wavered
remains best known for the thick textured and
for many years between
gritty surfaces of his pictures from the 1940s
painting and working in his
and ‘50s.
father’s wine business. He would later be a successful propagandist, gaining notoriety for his attacks on conformism and mainstream
About the Artist: Jean Dubuffet was born on July 31,
culture, which he described as “asphyxiating.”
1901, in Le Havre, France, into a middle-
He was attracted to the art of children and the
class family that distributed wine. Although
mentally ill, and did much to promote their
he was well-educated, he came to reject his
work, collecting it and promulgating the notion
studies, preferring to educate himself by
of Art Brut. His early work was influenced by
reading the work of Dr. Hans Prinzhorn, who
that of outsiders, but it was also shaped by the
drew comparisons between the art of asylum
interests in materiality that preoccupied many
inmates and the artwork of childrenw. Based
post-war French artists associated with the
on these observations, Prinzhorn stated that
Art Informel movement. In the early 1960s, he 1 Visuel
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it was savagery, or
wine business and
influenced by the
base animal instinct,
continued to study
paintings of Jean
that lead to universal
on his own. He found
Fautrier, Dubuffet
harmony, arguing
solace with the
began to take a
that it was the
common, everyday
similar approach to
primal instinct, not
people of the country
the texture of his
intellectual theory
and believed there
paint, combining
or analysis, that
was meaning in living
sand, gravel, tar,
connected all living
a simple life with a
and straw to his
things. This concept
focus on music and
paintings to create
had a strong influence
poetry. It was not until
a thick emulsion.
on Dubuffet’s later
1942 that Dubuffet
The mixtures
career.
decided to return to
created a highly
In 1918, Dubuffet
painting where he
textured surface,
moved to Paris where
could explore this
providing the ideal
he studied painting at
fondness for quotidian
ground for his raw,
the Académie Julian.
life and the interiority
primal figures. As
Dubuffet thought of
of human emotion.
Dubuffet became
himself as savage in comparison to the intellectuals at the art
Mature Period: Frustrated
increasingly obsessed
Dubuffet creating Expériences Musicales in 1961.
with texture, he began
them, exaggerating
to drastically limit his
features and
academy. Rebelling
by intellectual
palette, focusing on
proportions to create
against the institution,
approaches to art,
dark, monochromatic
grotesque caricatures,
Dubuffet took a
Dubuffet continued
surfaces and figures.
challenging cultural
stance that was anti-
to admire the artwork
art and anti-culture,
of asylum inmates
matter featured
beauty, traditional
for example, refusing
and children. In
the surrounding
academic notions
to be constrained
attempting to recreate
countryside, including
of realism, and the
by categories like
what he saw as their
childlike depictions of
more contemporary
“Surrealist” and
uninhibited style,
cows and milkmaids,
obsession with non-
“Futurist.” After
he chose to paint in
but shifted to focus
objective art. What
attending classes
seclusion where he
on urban landscapes
is most striking
for six months, he
could experiment with
and city dwellers.
about his work from
withdrew from the
new methods and
Although he created
this period is his
academy, deeming
concepts, unfettered
many portraits
deliberate evocation
his studies useless.
by theory or popular
based on urban
of ugliness. Dubuffet
In 1924, Dubuffet
trends.
individuals, he chose
did not believe in
to depersonalize
the separation of the
took over his father’s
Heavily
Dubuffet’s subject
standards of
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beautiful and the ugly,
black. This approach
and, as such, declared
allowed Dubuffet
that ugliness did not
to break away from
exist. He expressed
objectivity and, he
this in many of his
believed, to arrive at
paintings, including
art in the purest form.
the series of portraits
In 1962, Dubuffet
Hautes Pates (c. 1945),
titled these paintings
which was exhibited
the Hourloupe series.
in 1946 at the Galerie
From 1966 to his
Rene Drouin.
death, Jean Dubuffet Jean Dubuffet- “The Cow With The Subtle Nose” (1954) Oil and enamel on canvas.
In 1948, Jean Dubuffet joined with
would use the Hourloupe series as
Surrealists André
inspiration for several
Breton and Charles
large-scale sculptures.
Ratton to establish
These sculptures
Art Brut, or outsider
are comprised of
art, a style of image-
papier-mache and
making modeled after
polystyrene, many
the art collection of
of which are large
Dr. Prinzhorn. The
enough to walk
primitive, childlike
through.
approach to art was
Legacy:
an alternative to the conventional art world
Until his death
aesthetic, and the
Jean Dubuffet- “L’Hourloupe” (1966) Colored ink on paper.
return to figuration was a deliberate
was exhibited in retrospectives and
about-face from the abstract, non-
in 1985, Dubuffet
exhibitions around with materials and through style. In his later
the world. Rebelling
career, he created some of his most important
against art, culture,
work, gravitating toward the tools used by the
and intellectualism,
“common man,” such as ballpoint and felt tip
Dubuffet was
pens. Dubuffet’s style began to accommodate
instrumental in
Surrealist notions of automatic drawing, seeking
establishing the
continued to challenge
to tap directly into his subconscious. He would
style of Art Brut, an
aesthetic boundaries
begin with simple scribbles on paper and finalize
aesthetic of his own
through experiments
the work with flashes of red, blue, white, and
that was devoid of the
objective canvases of his contemporaries.
Late Period: Dubuffet
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Jean Dubuffet shot on the set of his live painting “Coucou Bazar” (1973).
traditional standards of its time, both in style
textured surface depicts a cow, rendered in
and subject matter. His primitive approach to
the childlike innocence of patients held in
art making, with its simple, childlike figures and
psychological facilities. The uninhibited, savage
bold, visually dramatic palette, has universal
approach to the canvas exemplifies the concepts
appeal and is instrumental in modern psychology
of what Dubuffet termed Art Brut - the image
and studies of mental development.
seems entirely unschooled in the traditions of
The artwork of Jean Dubuffet continues
landscape. The image is thus at odds with the
to be exhibited and collected by The Dubuffet
notions of “high art,” and approaches art making
Foundation, represented by the Pace Gallery in
from the direction of artistic purity uninfluenced
New York City.
by cultural advancement. Going a step further, Dubuffet suggests how “cultural” and “savage” approaches to art together work to reaffirm civilization as a whole.
The Cow With The Subtle Nose (1954):
D
Oil and enamel on canvas - The Museum Of Modern Art, New York.
ubuffet’s heady experience in the country and rejection of art education is evident in this painting. The heavily
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L’Hourloupe (1966):
A
rtwork description & Analysis:
that Jean Dubuffet titled practicables and secondly, costumes.
Dubuffet’s L’Hourloupe series began in 1962 and would preoccupy the artist
for many decades. The inspiration came from
The Participles: The practicables are made from a panel
a doodle he created while on the telephone,
of klégécell (a kind of wood), layered in resin
in which the fluid movement of line combines
and painted with a coat of a vinyl acrylic.
with limited fields of color to create movement.
The subjects are enlargements of drawings
He believed the style evoked the manner in
(characters, animals, decorative elements, etc...)
which objects appear in the mind. This contrast
that the artist had prepared beforehand. The
between physical and mental representation later
practicable were executed by his assistants
encouraged him to use the approach to create
between 1971 and 1973. Some of the practicables
sculpture.Ink on paper - Galerie Jeanne Bucher,
are mounted on wheels or animated by
Paris
machinery. Others, which are lighter, can be moved by animators concealed behind. Dubuffet
Coucou Bazar:
C
designed 175 practicables, only part of which
oucou Bazar—an animated painting—
took place in the “spectacle”. All currently
directly taken from the cycle of
gathering in the Dubuffet Foundation in Périgny-
L’Hourloupe by Jean Dubuffet- was
sur-Yerres includes 98 practicables.
performed for the first time in New York from May to July 1973 at the occasion of the retrospective exhibition of the artist at the Solomon R.
The Costumes: The costumes, worn by the actors, are
Guggenheim Museum. A second version was
composed of various interchangeable elements
produced in the following September as part of
: masks, hats, dresses, gloves and boots made in
the Festival d’Automne de Paris accompanying
various materials: rayon or painted coton, resin,
the retrospective exhibition at the Galeries
latex, etc...There are twenty different characters
Nationales du Grand Palais, taken from that of
wearing costumes and animating slowly on stage.
New York. Finally, a third and final version of the
All the costumes are conserved and now exposed
“spectacle”, produced by FIAT, to be performed in
at the Dubuffet Foundation in Périgny-sur-Yerres.
Turin in 1978. The “spectacle” lasts one hour and consits of a series of paintings animated by different actorsdancers. The music of the first two versions (New York and Paris) was composed by the Turkish musician, Ilhan Mimaroglu, whereas that of the version in Turin uses various recordings and musical experiments by Jean Dubuffet. The elements of Coucou Bazar are, firstly,
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