Jean Dubuffet, a barbarian in Europe.
Hazan| N° d'inventaire | 21896 |
| Format | 19 x 28.5 |
| Détails | 224 p., numerous illustrations, paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2019 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | |
Painter, writer, and inventor of Art Brut, Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) was a major figure on the 20th-century Western scene. In the aftermath of the Second World War, this elusive and controversial artist engaged in a radical critique of the art and culture of his time, making constantly renewed invention the pillar of his work and thought. Borrowing from anthropology, folklore, and the field of psychiatry, he continued the decompartmentalizing activity carried out by the avant-gardes of the interwar period, dynamiting the belief in a supposedly primitive art, and engaging creation on new paths, in touch with everyday life. This catalogue is divided into three main sections: 1. Celebration of the common man The fantastical figure of the "common man" is implemented by the painter at the heart of his writings and his painting from 1944. The "common man" is at the same time a way of defining himself and situating himself in the world in general, and in the world of art in particular, the subject of his painting and the representation he has of the authentic artist. 2. An ethnography in action From the interwar period, Jean Dubuffet was interested in plastic productions situated at the fringes of the history of Western art. The enterprise of Art Brut initiated in 1945 is at the heart of his reflection. While his interest in the drawings, paintings, sculptures, and assemblages created in the asylum environment is often noted, his appetite for and knowledge of popular art, children's drawings, ancient arts, and non-Western artifacts should not be overlooked. The wide network of cooperation involving ethnographers, psychiatrists, and other lovers of otherness attests to this. Further on, the painter diverts ethnographic uses to the benefit of his work and his thought, carrying out an ethnography in diverted action. 3. Critique of Culture The celebration of the common man and the close relationship that Dubuffet maintains with the reflections of the ethnology of his time fuel what, from 1949 onward, becomes established as a radical critique of humanist culture. Dubuffet questions the distribution of values that found it. At the heart of his work, the point of view, language, belief systems, and values of art are questioned. The form of absolute relativism that the painter then pursues echoes the work of his contemporary Claude Lévi-Strauss, an anthropologist interested in the painter's approaches. This exhibition will then travel to Barcelona and then to the Museum of Ethnography in Geneva.
Painter, writer, and inventor of Art Brut, Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) was a major figure on the 20th-century Western scene. In the aftermath of the Second World War, this elusive and controversial artist engaged in a radical critique of the art and culture of his time, making constantly renewed invention the pillar of his work and thought. Borrowing from anthropology, folklore, and the field of psychiatry, he continued the decompartmentalizing activity carried out by the avant-gardes of the interwar period, dynamiting the belief in a supposedly primitive art, and engaging creation on new paths, in touch with everyday life. This catalogue is divided into three main sections: 1. Celebration of the common man The fantastical figure of the "common man" is implemented by the painter at the heart of his writings and his painting from 1944. The "common man" is at the same time a way of defining himself and situating himself in the world in general, and in the world of art in particular, the subject of his painting and the representation he has of the authentic artist. 2. An ethnography in action From the interwar period, Jean Dubuffet was interested in plastic productions situated at the fringes of the history of Western art. The enterprise of Art Brut initiated in 1945 is at the heart of his reflection. While his interest in the drawings, paintings, sculptures, and assemblages created in the asylum environment is often noted, his appetite for and knowledge of popular art, children's drawings, ancient arts, and non-Western artifacts should not be overlooked. The wide network of cooperation involving ethnographers, psychiatrists, and other lovers of otherness attests to this. Further on, the painter diverts ethnographic uses to the benefit of his work and his thought, carrying out an ethnography in diverted action. 3. Critique of Culture The celebration of the common man and the close relationship that Dubuffet maintains with the reflections of the ethnology of his time fuel what, from 1949 onward, becomes established as a radical critique of humanist culture. Dubuffet questions the distribution of values that found it. At the heart of his work, the point of view, language, belief systems, and values of art are questioned. The form of absolute relativism that the painter then pursues echoes the work of his contemporary Claude Lévi-Strauss, an anthropologist interested in the painter's approaches. This exhibition will then travel to Barcelona and then to the Museum of Ethnography in Geneva.