Moeller Fine Art - Jean Dubuffet

<i>Le sol de la montagne</i>, 1957
ink and collage on paper
53½ x 47¼ in. (136 x 120 cm)
signed and dated lower left: <i>J. Dubuffet 57'</i>

Le sol de la montagne, 1957
ink and collage on paper
53½ x 47¼ in. (136 x 120 cm)
signed and dated lower left: J. Dubuffet 57'

Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985)

1901

Born July 31 in Le Havre, France as Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet. He is already interested in fine arts when he is still at school.

1918

Moves to Paris to study painting at the Académie Julian which he leaves after six months to study independently.

1919

Sets up a studio in his parents' wine deposit. Makes trip to Algeria.

1921-23

Visits André Masson in his studio, whose work is to influence his paintings. Through the art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler gets in contact with Juan Gris and Fernand Léger who he becomes friends with.

1923

Dubuffet is called for military service

1924

Moves back to Paris and starts painting again. After the lecture of Prinzhorn's 'Artistry of the Mentally Ill', he doubts the value of art, destroys most of his paintings and decides to give up art. In his opinion, "true art" is to be found among "ordinary people". Travels to Buenos Aires in October 1924 and works there as a design draftsman. Returns in 1925 and takes over his father's business selling wine in Le Havre.

1927

Marries Paulette Bret

1929

Birth of daughter Isalmina

1930

Opens a wine shop in Bercy near Paris

1933

Through the contact to his former friends in Paris, temporarily takes up painting again and rents a studio.

1934

Rents out his wine shop in order to work entirely as an artist. Splits up with his wife.

1935

Meets Emilie Carlo with whom he builds masks and marionettes for a marionette theater.

1937

Gives up painting again in order to save his wine shop from bankruptcy. In December, marries Emilie "Lili" Carlu of whom he makes a portrait series.

1939

Is shortly drafted for military service

1940

Returns to Paris and takes care of his wine shop which he is to rent out again two years later.

1942

Turns to art for good and rents a studio in rue Lhomond. Starts to paint figures of nude women in an impersonal and primitive way, in strong and unbroken colors. Also he chooses as subjects people in the commonplace of everyday life, such as people sitting in the underground, or just walking in the country.

1943

Paints series of "Métro"-paintings.

1944

Starts an important relation with the French writer and publisher Jean Paulhan who is also strongly fighting against 'intellectual terrorism', as he calls it. He is to become one of his most crucial supporters. Meets other artists and intellectuals as Francis Ponge, Pierre Seghers, Louis Parrot, Paul Eluard, and Jean Fautrier. Becomes strongly impressed by a show in Paris of Jean Fautrier's paintings in which he recognizes meaningful art which expresses directly and purely the depth of a person. As did Fautrier he starts to use thick oil paint, but mixes with sand and gravel, by which he can model the paint as a skin of the painting. The gallerist René Drouin shows Dubuffet's 'Hautes Pâtes' in his first solo exhibition.

1945

Sees Adolf Wölfli's paintings in Switzerland and starts collecting works produced by non-professionals working outside aesthetic norms, such as psychiatric patients, prisoners, and children, including artists such as Aloїse Corbaz and Adolf Wölfli. Influenced by Hans Prinzhorn's book 'Artistry of the Mentally Ill', Dubuffet coins the term 'Art Brut' (meaning 'raw art', oftentimes referred to as 'outsider art') for this kind of art. Dubuffet seeks to create an art as free from intellectual concerns, and his work often appears primitive and child-like. Experiments with all kinds of materials. The New York Gallerist Pierre Matisse visits him in his studio and buys several works. He is to become his gallerist in America.

1946

René Drouin shows new series of paintings "Mirobolus, Macadam et Cie., Hautes Pâtes". Michel Tapié writes the catalogue introduction. The paintings made of sand, glass and cement lead to heavy protests. Publishes his essay "Prospectus aux amateurs de tout genre" in which he explains his artistic position independent of any academic art.

1947

First solo exhibition in America at Galerie Pierre Matisse, New York who will show his new paintings regularly until 1959. After the disposition of his wine shop he is able to work in a financially independent way. His first successful show at René Drouin shows a series of portraits of his own friends Henri Michaux, Michel Tapié, Jean Paulhan, Fautrier and Pierre Matisse. He paints these portraits in thick materials, and deliberately anti-psychological and anti-personal, as Dubuffet expresses himself. In the basement of the gallery, he exhibits of his "Art Brut" collection. The association "Compagnie de l'Art-Brut", founded by André Breton, Dubuffet, Jean Paulhand, Michel Tapié and others, also has its office here.

1948

Approaches the surrealist group. He is befriended with the French playwright, actor and theater director Antonin Artaud, he admires and supports the writer Celine and is strongly connected with the artistic circle around the surrealist André Masson. Spends a period in the desert oasis "El Goléa" in Algeria. The extraordinary landscape leads him to the paining series "Paysages grotesques".

1950

Painting series "Corps de dames"

1951

Travels to America for six months to show his "Art Brut" collection in East Hampton, Long Island, where he got invited by the collector Alfonso Ossorio. Moves to a studio in New York. Takes his sensational speech about "Anticultural positions"- art of the primitives - in the "Arts Club of Chicago", on the occasion of his exhibition there.

1952

Publishes an extensive essay about the new paintings in the exhibition catalogue "Landscaped tables, landscapes of the mind, stones of philosophy". Marcel Duchamp is involved in the English translation. Returns to Paris.

1954

Finishes his painting series "Sols et terrains", "Lieux momentanés" and "Pâtes battues" – smoothed canvases that he has treated with a knife. René Drouin organizes the first retrospective of Dubuffet's work 1942 – 1954 in the Cercle Volnay. Dubuffet starts making sculptural works with the "Petites statues de la vie précaire". A residence in the Auvergne induces him to create the series of the "Vaches".

1955

Moves to Vence, occasionally also works in Paris. The Mediterranean vegetation with its diverse terrestrial shapes is reflected in assemblage paintings "Tableaux d'assemblages", put together by cut-out, painted canvases.

1957

First museum retrospective of his works in Schloss Morsbroich in Leverkusen, Germany. Dubuffet makes a series of terrestrial paintings "Texturologies".

1959

Pierre Matisse shows an extensive retrospective. Participation at the documenta II in Kassel, Germany.

1960

Exhibitions at the Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover; in the Kunsthaus Zurich and in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. The Belgian writer Max Loreau starts working on the catalogue raisonnée of Dubuffet's works that is to be finished in 1991. Breaks up with Pierre Matisse. Daniel Cordier becomes his only gallerist. In the end of the year, Dubuffet begins experimenting with music and sound and makes several recordings with the Danish painter Asger Jorn. Again, he changes his way of painting and his topics with the series of Parisian street life "Paris Circus". The same period he starts making sculpture, but in a very not-sculptural way. As his medium he prefers to use the ordinary materials as papier mâchier and for all the light medium polystyrene, in which he can model very fast and switch easily from one work to another, as sketches on paper.

1962

"The work of Jean Dubuffet" is shown in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which is to travel to the Art Institute of Chicago, and to the Los Angeles County Museum. His "Art Brut" collection returns to Paris after ten years. Dubuffet starts indexing about 1200 works by 100 artists. The "Compagnie de l'Art Brut" is re-founded. Starts working on the "L'Hourloupe" – paintings that are based on telephone scribbles with red pens; semi-automatistic drawings that he bars with blue stripes. He now uses vinyl instead of oil which dries much faster.

1964

On the Occasion of the Biennale, his "L'Hourloupe" – paintings are shown in the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. Participation at documenta III in Kassel with seven paintings. Dubuffet breaks up with Cordier and is being represented by the gallerists Jeanne Bucher in Paris and Beyeler in Basel. The first part of the catalogue raisonnée appears.

1966

Extensive retrospectives at the Tate Gallery, London; at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas. Dubuffet is now internationally acknowledged. From July on, he makes his sculptures from Styrofoam and polyester.

1967

Gallimard Dubuffet publishes his collected writings "Prospectus at tous écris suivants"

1968

Participation at documenta IV, Kassel

1969

In order to transfer his "L'Hourloupe" ideas into architecture, he builds big halls in Périgny-sur-Yerres near Paris for the production of monumental sculptures. He builds the "Cabinet logologique", 6 x 7 meters.

1970

Monumental sculpture "Groupe de quatre arbres" for the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York

1971

Works on kinetic coulisse paintings "Practicables" and the costumes for the dance musical "Coucou Bazar"

1973

"Coucou Bazar" takes place in occasion of his retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Afterwards the exhibition travels to the Grand Palais, Paris. Dubuffet donates his "Art Brut" collection to Lausanne. The "Fondation Jean Dubuffet" is founded in Périgny-sur-Yerres. Starts working on "Jardin d'émail" in the Park of the Kröller-Müller-Museum, Otterlo.

1975

Begins his assemblage painting series "Théâtre de Mémoire"

1976

Opening of the Art-Brut-Museum in Château Beaulieu in Lausanne

1977

Shows the assemblage paintings for the first time at Pace Gallery New York

1978

Dubuffet collaborates with American composer and musician Jasun Martz to create the record album artwork for Martz's avant-garde symphony entitled 'The Pillory'.

1980

Dubuffet's first great retrospective with 400 works in Germany at the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, which afterwards travels to the Museum Moderner Kunst in Vienna and to the Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle, Köln.

1981

In occasion of his 80th birthday, Dubuffet is being honored through extensive exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and in the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

1984

Exhibits his group of "Mires" paintings in the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Makes his last series of "Non-Lieux" paintings.

1985

Dubuffet dies in Paris on May 12

NEW YORK
Masterworks of Six Centuries:
Crosscurrents in Modern Art
Feininger ∙ Kandinsky ∙ Dubuffet ∙ Michaux ∙ Dorazio
May 3 - 27, 2011

Jean Dubuffet

Artist Bio

Past Gallery Exhibitions