Jean Dubuffet

Private Collection, New York
Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York
Private Collection, New York
Private Collection, Switzerland

Max Loreau, Catalogue des Travaux de Jean Dubuffet, fasc. VII: Tables Paysagées du Mental, Pierres Philosophiques, Lausanne 1979, p. 120, no. 198, illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the illustration fails to fully convey the rich surface texture apparent in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Upon close inspection, there are a few short and stable cracks scattered in places throughout the cream pigment of the figure. There are several isolated spots of wear along the extreme edges, a few of which appear to have been retouched when examined under ultra-violet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Buste au Nez Tavelé is an immediately compellingly and deeply expressive painting which epitomises Jean Dubuffet's preoccupation with the dual importance of materiality and the primitive figure in his oeuvre. The 1950s was an exceptionally rich and pivotal period for the artist, during which time he was to explore a new freedom of unashamed expression through a play with the surface of his canvases. Dubuffet explains, "The objective of painting is to animate a surface which is by definition two-dimensional and without depth. One does not enrich it in seeking effects of relief or trompe-l'oeil through shading; one denatures and adulterates it...Let us seek instead ingenious ways to flatten objects on the surface; and let the surface speak its own language and not an artificial language of three-dimensional space which is not proper to it." (The artist cited in: Exhibition Catalogue, New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Jean Dubuffet, A Retrospective, 1973, p. 24).  Buste au Nez Tavelé perfectly reflects this ideology; here, the artist creates a deeply worked canvas and all at once, gauges, scrapes and builds up the painting's surface, marking out an arresting figure with ancient graffiti-like features.

Conceived shortly after the artist's renowned series Corps de Dame, the present work maintains the anti-civilized and primitive cultural project the artist adopted since the end of the Second World War, after which time Dubuffet was confronted with a deep angst and consumed with the need to rid visual art of its affected heroics, wanting to reveal a tragic and anonymous humanism in his figures in conjunction with an extended rawness in his painting technique. Buste au Nez Tavelé epitomises Dubuffet's determination to create art that shares no precedent, breaking free from any modern linear forms or constraints.  His fascination with the rawness and purity of the human psyche is made manifest in this arrestingly tangible painting. Having looked towards the art of the mentally ill, the art of children and the art of primitive cultures for inspiration, Dubuffet shares an approach that exists similarly beyond any hold, whist learning from Art Brut the importance of learning no lesson at all.