Jean Dubuffet

Sidney Janis Gallery, New York
Galleria d’Arte Levi, Milan
Mathias Fels, Paris
Marlborough Galleria d’Arte, Rome
André Simoens Gallery, Knokke
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1996

Caracas, Sala Mendoza, Evolution of Modern Painting, 1959, no. 15
Rome, Marlborough Galleria d'Arte, Dubuffet, 1963, illustrated in colour (cover)

Lorenza Trucchi, Jean Dubuffet, Rome 1965, no. 70, illustrated
Max Loreau, Ed., Catalogue des Travaux de Jean Dubuffet, Fascicule VII: Tables Paysagées, Paysages du Mental, Pierres Philosophiques, Paris 1984, p. 90, p. 137, illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the background is brighter in the original/ The catalogue illustration also fails to convey three dimensional nature of the surface visible in the original. Condition: This work is in very good and original condition. Extremely close inspection reveals evidence of light burnishing to the tips of some of the protruding elements, with a very few associated specks of loss, notably one towards the lower centre of the composition. All other surface irregularities appear to be inherent to be artist's choice of medium and working process. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
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A remarkable example from a crucial period within Jean Dubuffet’s universally celebrated oeuvre, Tête Abondante is beautifully rendered in the artist’s iconic art brut aesthetic. Executed in complexly layered textures of deep pigment, Dubuffet has masterfully translated the human form into a reduced, two-dimensional, yet compelling effigy. Exuding both a physical and psychological liveliness, this work speaks with a raw and profound immediacy.

During his time studying at the Académie Julian in Paris, Dubuffet found himself opposing the conformity of the formal art world and rebelling against the institution by taking a stance that was regarded as ‘anti—art’. Consistent with this position, Dubuffet rejected traditional portraiture, which he regarded as facile imitation. Instead he chose to challenge the authority of line and form through a raw verisimilitude of matter that he believed could only be found in art brut or ‘raw art’. Inspired by the book of Hans Prinzhorn, Artistry of the Mentally Ill, Dubuffet built up an artistic practice that revolved around discovering and celebrating an art form in which everyone could participate and by which everyone could be entertained. To such an end, he became interested in the art produced by non-professionals, often termed ‘outsiders’, such as psychiatric patients, prisoners and children and much of his early artistic output was commonly described as ‘childlike’ or ‘primitive’.

However, in Tête Abondante we see the intellectual maturity of Dubuffet’s art brut practice that combines a bold handling of texture with a wry sense of humour and irony. Using unorthodox materials such as sand, tar and straw, mixed with oil paint, Dubuffet created a thickened impasto which gives this painting an unusual and highly textured surface. The current lot also exemplifies his early dismissiveness of perspective, in favour of a more direct, two-dimensional presentation of space. From the rough outline and the change in pigment and texture we are able to discern the outline of the circular head being supported on a smaller, narrow neck. The face is devoid of recognisable features, drawing our attention away from the question of identity and focusing it instead on scale. Its title, Tête Abondante (translated as ‘abundant head’) suggests an overflowing of ideas and thoughts that are struggling to be contained. This work is an exceptional display of Dubuffet’s insatiable interest in material and figurative two-dimensionality for which his practice became world renowned. As he himself commented; "The objective of a painting is to animate a surface which is by definition two-dimensional and without depth...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 objects represented will be transformed into pancakes, as though flattened by a pressing iron" (Jean Dubuffet quoted in Exh. Cat., New York, Jean Dubuffet: A Retrospective, 1973, p. 24).