Jean Dubuffet Crude Art Preferred to Cultural Art Analysis

Students in "History of Twentieth Century Art" this fall had the choice to research objects in the OSUMA collection. For the next few weeks on the blog, I will be featuring their research. First upwardly is student Lindsay Gernhardt, who researched and wrote nearly Jean Dubuffet'due south lithograph, Barbe des Perplexités. The post-obit text is excerpted from her paper.

Jean Dubuffet's work Barbe des Perplexités illustrates Dubuffet's life, his artistic process, and his personal philosophy. Dubuffet was born on July 31, 1901 in Le Havre, French republic to a middle-class family that distributed wine. In 1918, he studied at the Academie Julian for six months, simply was not inclined to stay. In 1923, a friend gave him a re-create of Dr. Hans Prinzhorn'due south 1922 book Bildnerei der Geisteskranken or Artistry of the Mentally Ill. Prinzhorn'south book offered a stimulating collection of pictures done by asylum inmates and examined the art of children as a bespeak of comparison. Dubuffet plant great inspiration in Prinzhorn'southward study, and its influence allowed him to create artworks that undermined social, cultural, and academic conventions.

" data-medium-file="https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/dubuffet-in-his-studio.png?w=281" data-large-file="https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/dubuffet-in-his-studio.png?w=495" class="size-medium wp-image-1529" alt="Jean Dubuffet in his studio in Vence, France, in front of works from the "Barbes" series, 1959. Photo © John Craven, courtesy of the Dubuffet Foundation (click image to visit their site)." src="https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/dubuffet-in-his-studio.png?w=281&h=300" width="281" height="300" srcset="https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/dubuffet-in-his-studio.png?w=281&h=300 281w, https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/dubuffet-in-his-studio.png?w=141&h=150 141w, https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/dubuffet-in-his-studio.png 495w" sizes="(max-width: 281px) 100vw, 281px">

Jean Dubuffet in his studio in Vence, French republic, in front of works from the "Barbes" series, 1959. Photo © John Craven, courtesy of the Dubuffet Foundation (click image to visit their site).

In 1944, Dubuffet had his start one-man exhibition at the Galerie Rene Drouin, and by 1945, he had acquired a large collection of works done past children, the mentally sick, "the archaic," and the "naïve"—anyone who had never had formal training. In talking virtually his inquisition into the works of children, Dubuffet said, "my persistent curiosity nigh children'southward drawings… is due to my promise of finding in them a method of reinstating objects derived … from a whole compass of unconscious glances, of finding those involuntary traces inscribed in the memory of every human beingness." Dubuffet wanted to exterminate the simulated social and cultural pretenses placed on art and artists. He believed works by children and the mentally ill were unrestrained, truthful insights into the world of humans, uninhibited by lodge's preconceived notions of intellectual, academic art.

Dubuffet's own work during this flow was considered "Fine art Brut" for its coarse, artless style and sometimes agonizing content.  He felt the term, which had a negative connotation when used by critics, positively enveloped the style of art that was meant for all people, unlike conventional museum art. In 1945 his admiration of layered graffiti on the walls surrounding Paris led him to produce a serial called Les Murs, or The Walls, in which he emphasized the importance of the mutual man's demand to keep records. Dubuffet said "my fine art is an attempt to bring all disparaged values into the limelight." Dubuffet was non lone in his rejection of high art or his approach to creating art outside the "academic" box. Artists such as Gauguin, Picasso, and the Surrealists were already exploring "primitive" fine art forms while implementing new modes of expression by the time Dubuffet was in his early twenties.

" data-medium-file="https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/the-exemplary-life-of-the-soil-texturology-lxiii1958.jpg?w=300" data-large-file="https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/the-exemplary-life-of-the-soil-texturology-lxiii1958.jpg?w=640" class="size-medium wp-image-1530" alt="Jean Dubuffet, "The Exemplary Life of the Soil" from the "Texturologies" series, 1958." src="https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/the-exemplary-life-of-the-soil-texturology-lxiii1958.jpg?w=300&h=246" width="300" height="246" srcset="https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/the-exemplary-life-of-the-soil-texturology-lxiii1958.jpg?w=300&h=246 300w, https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/the-exemplary-life-of-the-soil-texturology-lxiii1958.jpg?w=600&h=492 600w, https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/the-exemplary-life-of-the-soil-texturology-lxiii1958.jpg?w=150&h=123 150w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px">

Jean Dubuffet, "The Exemplary Life of the Soil" from the "Texturologies" series, 1958.

For several years during and after 1958, Dubuffet experimented with lithography. Many times he would mix sand and other elements into the oil pigment used on his lithograph stone. Using natural elements and establish objects, Dubuffet created unconventional landscapes depicting the globe'south soil. For Dubuffet, representing the soil in this manner was a response to humanity'southward failures during and after World War II. Dubuffet believed it necessary to beginning literally from the ground or "soil" upwardly. The Exemplary Life of the Soil, of 1958, is an example of this and relates to the formal components found in Barbe des Perplexités.

Dubuffet learned different techniques with lithographic transfer paper allowing him to assemble pieces to his satisfaction earlier making the final print. By 1959, Dubuffet had returned to the human effigy, cutting up lithograph paper into human forms, costumes, and facial elements. These new portraits were named the Barbes or Beards serial. The serial portrayed men with beards, using a broad range of surface textures for the facial hair that dominated the faces and heads of the figures. "The Barbes of 1959 were inspired past a friend's likening of Dubuffet to a Stoic or sage," a comparison of great philosophical significance to Dubuffet considering sages were thought to have great wisdom beyond their years, not only the book smarts found in the customary educational institutions of Dubuffet's era. Information technology is no wonder Dubuffet's friend compared him to a sage. Dubuffet'due south personal philosophy, which he documented in essays and books, was extremely relevant to his artwork which "opposed the prevailing mood of post-war Paris and sparked enormous scandal."  Many people living through the backwash of the 2d World State of war looked for a "redemptive art and a restoration of old values, but Dubuffet confronted them with childlike images that satirized the conventional genres of high fine art."

" data-medium-file="https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/dubuffet-perplexites.png?w=229" data-large-file="https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/dubuffet-perplexites.png?w=500" class="size-medium wp-image-1531" alt="Jean Dubuffet, "Barbe des Perplexités," 1959. Lithograph, museum purchase, Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, 10-0011." src="https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/dubuffet-perplexites.png?w=229&h=300" width="229" height="300" srcset="https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/dubuffet-perplexites.png?w=229&h=300 229w, https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/dubuffet-perplexites.png?w=458&h=600 458w, https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/dubuffet-perplexites.png?w=115&h=150 115w" sizes="(max-width: 229px) 100vw, 229px">

Jean Dubuffet, "Barbe des Perplexités," 1959. Lithograph, museum buy, Oklahoma State University Museum of Fine art, 10-0011.

Jean Dubuffet's 1959 lithograph Barbe des Perplexités is roughly twelve by nine and a half inches. At first glance, the twenty-first century viewer may be inclined to associate the figure of Barbe des Perplexités every bit an early printed rendition of one of Jim Henson's Muppets (Henson's beginning puppet show was in 1954). Similar Henson, Dubuffet besides enjoyed puppets. This seems credible when looking on the friendly effigy of Barbe des Perplexités. From a distance, Dubuffet's piece looks like a collage fabricated up of various types of torn paper or cloth. Although information technology is not an actual collage, Dubuffet did cut out shapes from lithographic transfer paper and fabricated several assemblages before making a final print.

A somewhat cartoonish disguised homo is centered in the composition, with the figure'southward bald head about touching the top of the folio while his small-scale body runs off the bottom. The effigy'southward beard is black and white with scribbly textures while the mustache has a marble like surface. The textures, specially the marble i, are evocative of Dubuffet'southward focus on the natural globe, which signified an honest rebuilding of society afterward a devastating war. His wide open, fixed gaze combined with his upturned mustache and half smile connotes not but a perplexed look only a wait of i deep in thought. The torso and facial features are rendered with the childlike qualities that Dubuffet admired and intentionally implemented. The overall feeling of Dubuffet's piece is friendly and curious, and although it has a childlike quality, it seems to convey developed emotion.

" data-medium-file="https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/klee-fright-of-a-girl-1922.jpg?w=216" data-large-file="https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/klee-fright-of-a-girl-1922.jpg?w=352" class="size-medium wp-image-1532" alt="Paul Klee, "Fright of a Girl," 1922. Watercolor, india ink and oil transfer drawing on paper, Guggenheim Museum." src="https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/klee-fright-of-a-girl-1922.jpg?w=215&h=300" width="215" height="300" srcset="https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/klee-fright-of-a-girl-1922.jpg?w=215&h=300 215w, https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/klee-fright-of-a-girl-1922.jpg?w=108&h=150 108w, https://osuma.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/klee-fright-of-a-girl-1922.jpg 352w" sizes="(max-width: 215px) 100vw, 215px">

Paul Klee, "Fright of a Girl," 1922. Watercolor, india ink and oil transfer drawing on paper, Guggenheim Museum.

Dubuffet's Barbe des Perplexites is like in comparison to several portraits done by Paul Klee.  Both Klee and Dubuffet took inspiration from the works of children and "people with no formal training." Both artists believed art should be created without rules and restrictions; that art should come from natural intuitive instinct.  Paul Klee's Fearfulness of a Girl from 1922 represents a child's influence.  The large caput with simplified facial features has several similarities to the effigy in Barbe des Perplexites including the circular optics and strange body type. Other consistencies betwixt their works appear where paint or ink has been purposely smudged or blotted out. In Fright of a Girl, watercolor or ink has been wiped up or diluted in the groundwork creating an eerie scene.  In Dubuffet's slice, the lithographic rock has been blotched in the upper left hand corner and around the edge making information technology appear pasted like collage.  Both Dubuffet and Klee shocked people with their rough, artless works but inspired them to see something more. Ultimately, the flat, seemingly simple representations comport an essence of deeper truth most adults had been taught to dismiss.

Further reading:

Dubuffet, Jean. Asphyxiating Culture and Other Writings.   Translated past Carol Volk. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit, 1986.

Dubuffet, Jean. "Crude Art Preferred to Cultural Art." Edited by Charles Harrison an Paul Forest. Art IN THEORY 1900-2000:  An Anthology of Irresolute Ideas. Michigan: Malden, 2013: 605-608.

Fineberg, Jonathan. The Innocent Centre:  Children's Art and the Modern Artist.  New Jersey: Princeton: Princeton Upwards, 1997.

McNulty, Kneeland.  Preface. The Lithographs of Jean Dubuffet; Nov 18^th  to Jan x^thursday 1964-1965. Philadelphia Museum of Fine art, 1964.

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Source: https://osuma.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/the-perplexing-art-and-philosophy-of-jean-dubuffet-barbe-des-perplexites-1959/

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