Jean Dubuffet

Galerie Bernard Cats, Brussels
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1988.

Max Loreau, Catalogue des Travaux de Jean Dubuffet, fasc. XXXIV: Psycho-Sites, Paris 1984, p. 71, no. 256, illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Upon extremely close inspection there are three artist's pin holes towards the centre of the top half of the composition and a fourth, centre-left towards the lower edge. There is a minute media accretion at the centre of the lower half of the composition and a further few transparent specks in the face of the rightmost figure. No restoration is apparent under UV 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."

Jean Dubuffet created obsessively in the early 1980s, having explored and experimented with a wide variety of materials and subject matter in his highly personalized style. His painterly process became ever more gestural during this period, seen here in the expressively and spontaneously rendered Site Avec 3 Personnages.

This work is from the series Psycho-sites, produced in 1981. It is a continuation of the techniques applied in his previous works of Théâtres de Mémoire that would further be explored in his subsequent series Site Aléatoires, all defined by a dense painterly background. In Site Avec 3 Personnages, Dubuffet applies agitated brushstrokes of vivid colour onto his surface. The juxtapositions of arresting lines and figures form a penetrating type of assemblage.

Dubuffet's figures were intermittently dispersed throughout his compositions and had an air of the grotesque and other-worldliness about them, deriving from his explorations of Art Brut and his fascination with the human psyche. Dubuffet spoke of how the presence of these figures, "heighten the evocative power of the place portrayed. ...The presence of a human figure gives the place the necessary existence and vitality without which it might remain to the observer merely a network of incomprehensible planes and lines. The figures have the function of a catalyst that triggers the imagination." (Jean Dubuffet, Bâtons rompus, Paris 1986, p. 64)