Jean Dubuffet

Gift of the artist to the present owner in 1966

Geneva, Galerie Georges Moss, Jean Dubuffet, November 1969 - January 1970, cat. no. 8

Max Loreau, ed., Catalogue des travaux de Jean Dubuffet, Fascicule XX: L'Hourloupe I, Paris, 1969, cat. no. 367, p. 168, illustrated

This work is in very good condition overall. There is evidence of light wear and handling to the edges. The colors are bright, fresh and clean. There is evidence of scattered hairline craquelure particularly in the white painted areas that is visible under close inspection but appears stable. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. Framed.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In 1946, Jean Dubuffet revolutionized the trajectory of Art History by establishing the term Art Brut to describe his distinctly singular style of painting. In championing those completely untouched by artistic culture, Dubuffet combined a rejection of all notions of classical perspective with inspiration from various groups of outsiders (the insane, prisoners, children and the primitive) and an almost Fauvist use of colors as the basis for his visual language. In the same year, Dubuffet met Dr. Jacqueline Porret-Forel, a general practitioner who had just come across the art of the insane during her medical training. Subsequently, Dr. Porret-Forel devoted herself to the study of the untrained artist Aloïse Corbaz, and brought Aloïse’s work to Dubuffet’s attention. Fully devoted to the origins and future of Art Brut, Dubuffet and Dr. Porret-Forel embarked on a lifelong journey to encourage further production of Art Brut, engaging with mental hospital patients and the like. As co-founders of the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, a museum whose inaugural gift in 1976 was Dubuffet’s entire collection of Art Brut works, Dubuffet and Dr. Porret-Forel’s friendship was indestructible. An exchange of artworks was common between the two, and in 1966, Dubuffet gifted Lampe et Balance I to Dr. Porret-Forel, though not after much resistance as Dubuffet was quite fond of the work himself and nearly refused to part with it. The work was prominently displayed in Dr. Porret-Forel’s living room and in her gracious thank you letter to Dubuffet, remarked: "This is a wonderful [painting], and quite changes the atmosphere of the room. We are fascinated by the protean and multidimensional character of Lampe et Balance I which is different each time you look…You could not have given us a greater pleasure.” (Source: Archives Fondation Dubuffet, Paris)

Now a symbol of the longstanding friendship between Dubuffet and Dr. Jacqueline Porret-Forel, Lampe et Balance I belongs to Dubuffet’s much acclaimed Hourloupe cycle, the style in which the artist worked from 1962 to1974. Recognized as the longest cycle within the artist’s oeuvre, L'Hourloupe, a subset of Art Brut, evolved from simple automatic telephone doodles. Drawing from his subconscious as a means of accessing the most primitive nature within him, Dubuffet limited his color palette to only black, white, red and blue, further eliminating expressionism as a function of color. His desire to rid art of its heroic tendencies and preconceived notions is visible not only in Lampe et Balance I, but in his entire oeuvre, stating: “Personally I am not interested in what is exceptional and this extends to all domains. I feed on the banal…I wish to recover the vision of an average and ordinary man, and, it is without using techniques beyond the grasp of an ordinary man.” While Dubuffet’s earlier works were concerned with immediacy, spontaneity and uncontrolled impulses of the hand, works of the 1960s and 1970s attempt to reveal truth hidden from plain sight, or, as the artist declared in August 1964, to portray glimpses into “things unseen by the eye but existing, nonetheless, for the mind.”

Dubuffet has completely redefined the traditional genre of still life painting in Lampe et Balance I. The composition is stripped of any recognizable forms, traditional perspective and modeling and instead, is defined by webs of incongruous yet intricate lines. The lamp, balance and table are almost unidentifiable, flattened and broken down into individual planes and designs that barely resemble their original appearance. This deconstruction and re-assemblage of form recalls the works of Cubist painter Georges Braque who once famously quipped: “To define a thing is to substitute the definition for the thing itself.” For Braque and Dubuffet, and every Art Brut artwork, three-dimensionality gave way to abstraction in order to test the limits and transcend the boundaries of traditional art and explore a new method of representation. Dubuffet’s central focus on the mind’s vision (rather than that of the eyes) propelled him to become one of the Twentieth Century’s most innovative artists whose idiosyncratic craft is inimitable.