Jean Dubuffet - part 1

Self-Portrait 1936 
oil on canvas 65.4 x 54.6 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Jean Dubuffet (1901 – 1985) was born in Le Havre, France. He attended art classes in his youth, and in 1918 moved to Paris to study at the Académie Julian, which he left after six months. During this time, Dubuffet met Raoul Dufy, Max Jacob, Fernand Léger, and Suzanne Valadon. He travelled to Italy in 1923 and South America in 1924. Then Dubuffet gave up painting for about ten years, working as an industrial draftsman and later in the family wine business. He committed himself to becoming an artist in 1942.

Dubuffet’s first solo exhibition was held at the Galerie René Drouin, Paris, in 1944. During the 1940s, he associated with André Breton, Georges Limbour, Jean Paulhan, and Charles Ratton. His style and subject matter in this period owed a debt to Paul Klee. From 1945, he collected Art Brut, spontaneous, direct works by untutored individuals, such as mental patients. The Pierre Matisse Gallery gave him his first solo show in New York in 1947.

From 1951 to 1952, Dubuffet lived in New York. He then returned to Paris, where a retrospective of his work took place at the Cercle Volney in 1954. His first museum retrospective occurred in 1957 at the Schloss Morsbroich, Leverkusen. Dubuffet exhibitions were subsequently held at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, in 1960 to 1961; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago in 1962; Palazzo Grassi, Venice, in 1964; the Tate Gallery, London, and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, in 1966; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1966 to 1967.

A collection of Dubuffet’s writings, Prospectus et tous écrits suivants (Prospectus and all subsequent texts), was published in 1967, the same year he started his architectural structures. Soon thereafter, he began numerous commissions for monumental outdoor sculptures. In 1971, he produced his first theatre props, the “practicables.” A Dubuffet retrospective was presented at the Akademie der Kunst, Berlin, the Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna, and the Joseph-Haubrichkunsthalle, Cologne (1980–81). In 1981, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum observed the artist’s 80th birthday with an exhibition. Jean Dubuffet died in 1985 in Paris.

This is part 1 of a 4-part post on the works of Jean Dubuffet:

1924-25 Botanical Lesson 
oil on canvas 60 x 49 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1924-25 Cherries and Smoker 
oil on canvas 45 x 37 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1942 Two Naked Women 
gouache 60 x 47 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1943 A Man with a Cat 
charcoal on paper 33.7 x 26 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1943 A Widow 
oil on canvas 91.4 x 73 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1944 Bearded Man Wearing Spectacles 
lithograph 37.8 x 28.9 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1944 Happy Camp 
oil on canvas 130 x 47 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1944 Horseback Riding 
lithograph 33.7 x 25.1 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1944 House in the Forest 
lithograph 32.4 x 25.7 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1944 Man Eating a Small Stone 
lithograph 32.3 x 24.1 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1944 Matter and Memory "Typist" 
lithograph 25.5 x 15.3 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 

1944 Matter and Memory, Ingenue 
lithograph 33.3 x 25.4 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1944 Matter and Memory, Maternity 
lithograph 33 x 26.4 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1944 Matter and Memory, Negress 
lithograph 33 x 25.4 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1944 Matter and Memory, Woman and Baby 
lithograph 33.3 x 25.1 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1944 Telephone Torment 
lithograph 32.7 x 25.1 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1944 The Coffee Grinder 
lithograph 34 x 24.1 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1944 The Nose Blower 
lithograph 33.3 x 25.7 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1944 View of Paris with Furtive Pedestrians 
oil on canvas 88.9 x 115.9 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1945 Man Sitting in a Chair 
oil on canvas 73 x 54 cm 
© ProLitteris, Zürich
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1945 Portrait of a Woman 
gouache on cardboard 31 x 28 cm 
© ProLitteris, Zürich
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1945 Small Head of a Man 
oil and newspaper on canvas on laminated cardboard 21.5 x 13.5 cm 
© ProLitteris, Zürich
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1945 Supervielle, Large Banner Portrait 
oil on canvas 130.2 x 97.2 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1945 Two Men on Foot by a Wall 
lithograph 38.1 x 28.6 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1945 Wall History, Plate 1 
37.8 x 28.9 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1945 Woman Grinding Coffee 
plaster, oil, tar andsand on canvas 116.2 x 88.9 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1946 Apartment Houses, Paris 
oil, sand and charcoal on canvas 114 x 145.7 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1946 Inhabited Landscape 
lithograph 21.7 x 33.5 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York