Biography
Jean Dubuffet was a French painter, sculptor and visual artist, born in Le Havre on July 31, 1901. After studying Beaux-Arts in his home town, Dubuffet moved to Paris in 1918, where he was a frequent visitor.
Jean Fautrier and Paul Éluard. Fascinated by literature, foreign languages and music, he began to paint between 1933 and 1937, after spending a few years as a tradesman, then stopped again before finally returning to painting in 1942. His first exhibition took place in 1944 at the Galerie Drouain, and caused a stir, notably for his crude and brutal treatment of everyday themes (
Mirobolus, Les Dessous de la capitale, Corps de dames).
Dubuffet showed an interest in the use of atypical materials, seen as trivial, such as gravel or rust. He took a close interest in lithography in the 50s with the
Phenomena. He was the first theorist of a style of art to which he gave the name "art brut", inspired by the drawings of children, marginal people, graffiti or other forms of ordinary art such as masonry techniques. Dubuffet also took an interest in sculpture, experimenting with polyester, and even going so far as to dislocate his own works to create new ones, as with the
Theaters of memory. He died in Paris on May 12, 1985.
The lithographs and illustrated books presented by Galerie Arenthon bear witness to these artistic explorations and his constant dialogue with literature.
