Jean
Dubuffet

France • 1901−1985

Biography and information

Jean Dubuffet (FR. Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet 31 July 1901 in Le Havre — may 12, 1985, Paris) was a French painter and sculptor.

The son of a wine merchant. At the age of seventeen went to Paris. Became friends with max Jacob, Jean-Paul. Read the monograph Hans Prinzhorn "Painting the mentally ill" (1922), which made a deep impression on him. Disappointed in his previous works, in 1925 he returned to Le Havre, started a family business selling wine.

To painting only came back in 1942, and in 1944 had his first solo exhibition in a Paris gallery Robert Drouhin. He became friends with the Surrealists. Became the founder of Art Brut — "rough" or "raw" art is fundamentally close to Amateur painting children, self-taught, mentally ill, not recognizing the conventional standards of aesthetic and use any available materials. In 1948 he began to assemble a collection of art Brut (currently located in Lausanne, see [1]). In 1975, he founded in Paris the Foundation Dubuffet.

In total, the artist has created about 10,000 jobs, which often form a series: "the Female body" (1950), "Small pictures from the wings of butterflies" (1953), "Small statues of precarious life" (1954), "Phenomena" (1958), "Urlop" (1967) and other Works Dubuffet is represented in major museums around the world.