Conceived for Jean Dubuffet’s monumental Coucou Bazar, the present work lends itself to the artist’s famed event, yet individually it stands as a powerful figure, resolutely firm in its broad, authoritative build. Coucou Bazar, derived from the artist’s L’Hourloupe series, was performed for the first time in 1973 at the Solomon R. Guggeheim Museum in New York and subsequently in Paris and Turin in 1974 and 1978 respectively. It was unprecedented at the time in both its elaborate, awe-inspiring scale and its artistic ingenuity.

Executed in 1975, Le Pirate is a quintessential example of Dubuffet’s L’Hourloupe works. Here, Dubuffet introduces a sculptural component to the series, reimagining his innovative doodles in the three-dimensional realm. Dubuffet removes any sense of fundamental constant from the figure, liberating the work from confined principles. The present work challenges the perception of reality, disturbing the traditional understandings of form by breaking down the concrete with an unconventional color palette and unique figuration. The artist said, “In my thinking, the works that belong to the ‘Hourloupe’ cycle are linked one to the other, each of them an element destined to become part of the whole. The cycle itself is conceived as the figuration of a world other than our own or, if you prefer parallel to ours, and it is this world which bears the name L’Hourloupe.”

This asymmetric construction of red, white, blue and black exhibits hints of human qualities, furthering Dubuffet’s examination of the perceptual world. Through the restricted use of colors and patterns, emerges a corporeal form that, paired with the work’s title, produces the semblance of an identifiable character, a pirate. Like a buccaneer, Dubuffet uses the personified Le Pirate to disturb the sanctity, questioning the norms in his metamorphic exploration into identity and definition.