I should mention in passing that “L’Hourloupe” is a word whose invention was based upon its sound. In French, these sounds suggest some wonderland or grotesque object or creature, while at the same time they evoke something rumbling and threatening with tragic overtones. Both are implied.” -Jean Dubuffet

Jean Dubuffet’s Le Train Des Vacants, 1965 epitomizes the artist’s L’Hourloupe series, a seminal body of work characterized by the simultaneous blending of both a primal and meticulous approach to the traditional pictorial plane. Inspired by ballpoint pen doodles drawn while talking on the telephone, Dubuffet began the L’Hourloupe series in the summer of 1962. These works investigate the artist’s interest in the cerebral dynamism between the unconscious and the deliberate, a fascination that occupied the artist throughout his career. The uncontrolled movements and desires of the hand are recorded, all the while demonstrating an acute level of precision. In the L’Hourloupe cycle of works the artist’s intent is active in the ambiguity. Within the systematic, jigsaw-like forms of the L’Hourloupe paintings, the present work captures a sense of spontaneity, finding harmony in puzzling opposites. Over the years, the series evolved through different mediums and dimensionalities. Here, Dubuffet employs a controlled yet impulsive methodology. As exemplified in the brushstrokes, Dubuffet officiates a calculated marriage between the existent and nonexistent throughout the L’Hourloupe series. Dubuffet is able to harness the nature of duality in the graphics that comprise this work, demonstrating a keen awareness to the relationship between the real and illusory.