Featuring newly commissioned essays and photography of rarely
exhibited works, this book highlights the radicalism of Jean Dubuffet,
who was one of the most provocative voices of the postwar avant-garde.
In 1940s occupied Paris, Jean Dubuffet began to champion a progressive
vision for art; one that rejected classical notions of beauty in favor
of a more visceral aesthetic. Taking a pioneering approach to
materiality and technique, the artist variously blended paint with sand,
glass, tar, coal dust, and string. At the same time, he began to
assemble a collection of Art Brut--work that was made outside the
academic tradition of fine art--even visiting psychiatric wards from
1945 to collect work by patients. This book features texts from leading
scholars and is accompanied by images that illuminate Dubuffet's
attempts to move beyond the artistic expectations of his time. The works
are grouped into six thematic sections that focus on specific series,
from his graffiti-inspired Walls and his notorious portrait series,
People are Much More Beautiful Than They Think to the Corps de dames, a
controversial series of female landscapes, and his anthropomorphic
sculptures, Little Statues of Precarious Life. Exquisitely produced,
this celebration of Dubuffet's work embraces his world view that art is
for everyone, not just the elite.
