JEAN DUBUFFET

Jean Dubuffet – A wealthy wine dealer provokes the Parisian art scene

Jean Dubuffet was born on 31 July 1901 in Le Havre. The son of a respected and wealthy wine dealer, he grew up in upper class circumstances and enjoyed a comprehensive education. His artistic interests were cultivated from early on; he attended drawing courses at the École des Beaux-Arts in Le Havre and after leaving school, studied literature, music and languages at the Académie Julian in Paris. During this time, Dubuffet met the writer, painter and poet Max Jacob. His first artistic attempts found him in the circle of the Parisian Surrealists, but he soon abandoned painting and followed his family path as a wine dealer. It was only in 1942 that Dubuffet returned to art, creating a series of naïve paintings which were displayed in his first solo exhibition in the Parisian gallery of René Drouin. Although his pictures initially caused a scandal after the war due to their sense of primitiveness, they soon brought him international recognition and led to an exhibition in the New York gallery Pierre Matisse in 1947. 

Madness and isolation as pillars of artistic creation

Jean Dubuffet broke off his course after just six months as he did not manage with the academic traditions. Among his early role models were the graffiti artists whose works he admired in Brassaï's photographs whilst Hans Prinzhorn’s book Die Bildnerei der Geisteskranken - passed onto him by the Swiss art critic Paul Budry - proved extremely formative. From this basis, he developed his concept of Art Brut, a decidedly anti-intellectual art whose visual language was fed by the imaginary worlds of children and the less fortunate. He not only created paintings in this style himself but collected the works of the mentally ill and social outsiders, amassing a comprehensive collection which is today part of the Collection del l’Art Brut in Lausanne. 

Jean Dubuffet despised and altered the modern art world

Jean Dubuffet also acquired a large part of his considerable influence on art history with his writing, and the writers George Limbour and Raymond Queneau counted amongst his close friends from his student days. He also influenced artists such as Jean-Michael Basquiat, Keith Haring and David Hockney. The diverse artist’s oeuvre is by no means limited to painting, but also includes music, theater, dance and sculpture. It was only after his death that his musical experiments for which he had collaborated with the Danish artist Asger Jorn were made public. As early as 1972, Jean Dubuffet created Coucou Bazar, a complete artwork consisting of all the genres that interested him, and which was only performed three times – the last staging documented on film. Dubuffet participated in Documenta in Kassel three times. 

Jean Dubuffet died on 12 May 1985 in Paris.