Jean Dubuffet

The Pace Gallery, New York
Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above in 1969)
Alan Dershowitz and Carolyn Cohen, USA (acquired in 1999)
Private Collection

Paris, Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Jean Dubuffet, Peintures Monumentées,1968-69

Max Loreau, Catalogue des Travaux de Jean Dubuffet, Tour aux Figures, Amoncellements, Cabinet Logolique, Fascicule XXIV, Lausanne 1973, pp. 76-77, no. 67, illustrated
Marjorie Welish, "Artful Balance," House and Garden, Vol. 157, no. 5, May 1985, pp. 164 and 222, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is slightly warmer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. The white vinyl has evenly discoloured overtime. Extremely close inspection reveals a few faint and unobtrusive handling marks isolated in places.
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Executed with the artist’s signature black outlines, Amoncellement à la Corne is a beautiful example of Jean Dubuffet’s original sculptures and his celebrated Hourloupe pattern. Begun as a casual scribble written down on a piece of paper during a telephone conversation, Dubuffet’s subconscious drawings would develop into one of the artist’s most iconic bodies of work. The Hourloupe series followed the transformative Paris Circus series from 1961, in which Dubuffet introduced the human figure in a much more joyful depiction than his wartime paintings. This radically new aesthetic characterised much of his later work and reflected the optimistic spirit of the 1960s. After the difficult years of recovery in post-war Europe, the more prosperous 1960s signalled a new phase in both art and society, which was perfectly captured in Dubuffet’s work of that period.

In was not until 1966, however, that Dubuffet transformed his new style into three-dimensional designs. Now at the age of 65, the artist had once again embarked on a new discovery, this time of the three-dimensional application of the Hourloupe pattern. The present work is part of the Amoncellements, a series of works started in the artist’s studio on Rue Labrouste in 1967, which was inspired by left-over parts of his sculptures. Intrigued by the compositional possibilities of these individual elements, the artist developed a new body of work, in which small sculptures were assembled together to form three-dimensional arrangements, covered with the Hourloupe pattern. As one of these assemblages, Amoncellement à la Corne is an elegant example of such an abstract still life, in which seven separate elements are carefully balanced to form a harmonious composition. Dubuffet remarked with regards to his new abstract sculptures, “It seems to me important to succeed under any circumstances in developing a space that no longer corresponds with naturalistic space, but with a dissected and dissolved version” (Jean Dubuffet quoted in: Exhibition Catalogue, Bilbao, Guggenheim Bilbao, Jean Dubuffet, 2003-04, p. 178).

Amoncellement à la Corne brilliantly captures the exploratory spirit of this fascinating body of work, driven by the artist’s new-found interest in abstract compositions and reflecting the hopefulness of 1960s Europe. As a beautiful example of the graphic Hourloupe design, arguably one of Dubuffet’s greatest artistic inventions, the work is a powerful reminder of the virtuosity of one of the most influential artists of the post-war decades.