Who is Artist Jean Dubuffet

Jean Dubuffet belongs to the category of neo-modernist artists of Paris Schools, who were pushed towards art, by a striking combination of fate and pragmatism. Jean Dubuffet was as actively associated with the collection of Art, as much he was with Sculpting or Music. In fact, Jean Dubuffet was one of the typical all rounder artists, who found their calling in not only Painting and Sculptures, but also ventured in Music and Film Making.

Jean Dubuffet's life was not an eventful one, though initially he rocked back and forth between his father's wine business and Art. Dubuffet finally settled down with his passion, Art. Trained in Art for six months at Paris, Jean Dubuffet dropped out to pursue his own independent form of painting. Throughout Jean Dubuffet's life, he collected "Outsider Art" i.e., Art by mentally deranged people, vagabonds, street urchins, and prisoners. He found inspiration in the seemingly asymmetric scrawling and the scratching of this kind of unintentional Graffiti and sought to convey that madness in his own Oil and Impasto Works.

Most of Jean Dubuffet's works appear as primitive and doodling that is almost too basic. In fact, most of his Impasto Works have a feel of a kindergarten kid. On a closer inspection however, there does appear to be a deliberate distortions of the formal Lines and Spaces. There is a violent attack on the formal definitions, as the Lines are twisted almost rudely to enter spaces that are forbidden in Formal Art. It is this impudence of his, that made Dubuffet find his space in the plethora of modern artists.

Jean Dubuffet was an artist, who found his groove late in life and had to struggle for his artistic space. Jean's paintings like 'Dhôtel nuancé d'abricott' are not very distinct from many of his contemporaries and display a fight to search for a new idiom of expression. However, his "Standing with the Beast" Sculpture (Fiberglass and Vinyl) in 1984, does manage to convey an entirely distinct semantics, which was solely his. The journey from the former to the latter is a journey of 37 years, which in itself is a salute to the tenacity of the artist.

Although not in the same league as that of major early 20th century artists such as, Miro, Dali, or Picasso, Jean Dubuffet did carve a niche for himself, towards the end of his career in the Polystyrene and Vinyl Sculptures that had a distinct flavor and language. One thing that characterized Jean Dubuffet was his attempt to re-define art from the early 19th century formal descriptions. Though a well accepted format today, Jean Dubuffet along with his peers, had to struggle to put this lingo into the acceptability mode. Dubuffet was at the vanguard of this movement, clubbed with the Paris School of Artists. Jean Dubuffet had a rather successful stint with Commercial Art. His Black and White drawing for Jason Martz's symphony "The Pillory" stands out as one of the iconic images in the art world, having been produced and reproduced umpteen times in journals and magazines worldwide.

Jean Dubuffet was an archetypal avant-garde European artist whose works carry the revolutionary flavors of Modern Impressionist Art, but are somehow trapped within the shadows of Picasso and Miro. Most of his critically acclaimed works however, stopped short of gaining the individuality that an artist craves for.

Annette Labedzki received her BFA at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. She has more than 25 years experience. She is the founder and developer of an online art gallery featuring original art from all over the world. It is a great site for art collectors to buy original art. Is is also a venue for artists to display and sell their art . Artists can join for free and their image upload is unlimited. Please visit the website at http://www.labedzki-art.com

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"Monument with Standing Beast" is a 29 ft (8.8m) tall sculptural wonder by the very famous French painter and sculptor, Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet or Jean Dubuffet (July 31, 1901-May 12, 1985). This 10 tonnes or 20,000 pounds (9100 kgs) weighing sculpture is the milestone artwork of Jean's, while being his last one too. Dubuffet had given life to the "Monument with Standing Beast" in his brutal, urban mode, well flavored with street language, graffiti, and caricature. The sculpture is said to represent four elements, a standing animal, a tree, a portal, and an architectural form.

Based in the front of James R. Thompson Center at the Loop Community Center, Chicago, Illinois, "Monument with Standing Beast" was unveiled to the local crowd on November 28, 1984. One of Dubuffet's three monumental sculpture commissions in the United States of America, the State of Illinois Capital Development Board commissioned this one, under Art-in-Architecture Program. The Leonard J. Horwich Family Foundation leveraged the deal in the memory of Leonard J. Horwich. The additional funding came from Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and an anonymous donor. The State of Illinois commissioned as many as 19 artworks, of which "Monument with Standing Beast" was the one.

Made of white fiberglass and epoxy resins with polyurethane paints, the sculpture was finished 15 years after its model was scaled in 1969. The white and black monument is inspired from Dubuffet's own 'Hourioupe' painting series of 1960. The series reflected the Hourloupe cycle, which suggests a relation and continuity between objects, places, and figures, a pattern well molded in "Monument with Standing Beast" too. Actually, Jean Dubuffet was not a hard believer of the intellectual form of art and therefore, most of his works are quite 'childish' in the hardcore artistic parlance. Even in the case of "Monument with Standing Beast," he had described it as a drawing, extending in to space. In the same context, he had coined the term 'Art Brut,' which in his words are the work free worries of competition, acclaim, and social promotion. In accord, the magnificence of "Monument with Standing Beast" did not really matter for Jean and he wanted it to be a monument for public experience than just being a structure, which it really lived up to. Jean Dubuffet died in the year 1985 in Paris.

Annette Labedzki received her BFA at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. She has more than 25 years experience. She is the founder and developer of an online art gallery featuring original art from all over the world. It is a great site for art collectors to buy original art. Is is also a venue for artists to display and sell their art . Artists can join for free and their image upload is unlimited. Please visit the website at http://www.Labedzki-Art.com
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So many people must be asking this question all the time... and not getting satifactory answers because I keep seeing articles on the subject.

So, to add to the mix, I thought that, because I am an Abstract Artist, I would give my answer.

First lets see what the official version has to say. The second definition of "abstract" in the Concise Oxford Dictionary says "Idealistic, not practical; abstruse; (Art etc.) free from representational qualities" And it is this last description I want to look at.
That which is free from representational qualities is a picture (or other type of art discipline) that does not depict any recognisable image such as a figure, building, or sky. There is no purposeful reference to anything physically particular.

Jackson Pollock, for instance, was one of the first abstract artists and produced the finest of examples... do a google search for his drip work then choose one. If you study the image closely it will soon become apparent that he randomly dripped paint onto a board laying flat on the floor. And if you read up a bit about him you will find that he even suspended paint-filled cans above a board, punched holes in the bottom of the can, and allowed the cans to swing, or be nudged, the paint slowly dripping to give a totally no-representative image. The important thing to remember here is that he had no intention of producing any kind likeness to anything physical whatsoever. So this style of art is truly an abstract work.

The difficulty comes when a piece of art is produced in a very loose and, even, child like way. Some might regard it as abstract. Here is an example of what I believe is NOT abstract art: go to http://www.guzzardi.it/arte/ then on the left side click on "Artisti Ceris" then click "D" go to the fourth name from the bottom "Jean Dubuffet" and click "Art Brut" there you will find three images of his work... each one depicts roughly painted figures and faces, and although the left hand image looks like imageless lines I do believe there are faces to be seen there (Don't get me wrong - Jean Dubuffet produced many abstract works... in fact that is what he was most famous for... it's just that these examples are not).

Some might call these Dubuffet paintings semi-abstract - but I do not. For me there is no such thing - either the picture does not represent anything... or it does - no matter how basic.

Another puzzle might be the later works of Mark Rothko. Some might argue that a basic rectangular shape could be regarded as a representational image. But you need to read about his life and philosophy to understand that he was not painting rectangles but what has become known as colour fields. The scale of his massive works and the fact that he gave up even titling his pieces should dispell any possibility of his work being anything other than the purer form of abstract art.

I would like to finish with one of my own enigmatic examples: http://www.ablot.com/passion3.htm in which I have sort to "portray" the idea of deep or spiritual movement. Such an explanation is, of course, dangerous in that I have used words like "portray", "spiritual" and "movement" - all of these have associations... but not necessarily physical ones! It is my belief that there is a relationship to be had with my spirit... and it is the purist form of abstraction. You can find out more about that in my blog on my website.

The only other thing to say here is that the abstract artist is seeking to put on canvas such non-figurative "imagery" as emotion, thought, the greater self, anarchy, and total randomness... to name but a few. And I intend to examine these "non-figures" in a bit more detail in my articles starting with "How to produce an abstract image - Part 2" You will be very welcome to come along and read it!

Tim Seaward is the author of "What is Abstract Art? One artists point of view". He is also a practicing fine artist living and working in the UK. Visit his site to find out exactly what he paints. http://www.ablot.com or mailto: tim@ablot.com

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The image is of Jean Dubuffet of course.

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"I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Music Without Lyrics - Wedding Toasts for the Foolish"

Dark wanderers flooding the night
Celtic tattoos pasted on the moon
dark poetry looming the skyline
looking for free recipes
for dreaming.

I will follow you into the dark
music without lyrics
wedding toasts for the foolish
of folly
whenever you call me.

Angels and airwaves
ancient healing
finding their way to me
despite my loss of
internal exploration at times
my heart does beat for their caresses.

Give me ultimate pleasure
or little tunes of hope
free games
or a Potter Trailer
from Autumn to ashes
so flowers can sing
I will follow you into the dark.
Nothing is so soothing
as whispers in the dark
saying we'll be fine.

Dark Fairy
elusive blossom
brings me printable gifts
and unique birdhouses
pictures of kittens
cats adorned with jeweled collars
kitty beds with pink ribbons.
Isn't that a fairies duty?
Making sure the flowers are content
not held captive
so fairy tales come alive?
Gifts on our back porch
despite the odds of feeling neglected
whenever my name is forgotten?

Fantasy fairies meet the darkness
afraid
as they find out who their friends are
secret friends
meeting fantasy art of exotic women
while forever pretending
only to be within docile pages
of the tattered book left on the table.

Dark Fairy
a queen between the lines
let out of page 765.
Despite my attempts to draw her in
unafraid to meet the present
laced by melodies
a musician's friend
Dark Fairy steadied her eyes on prizes.
Strong for mere determinations sake
she rises to meet her buried pride.
Everyone knows she says
amused
all who become wild women will one day be
female super heroes.
And with that printed inside her book of tales
she met the flowers ransom.

by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen
17 April 2009
Copyright 2009

The image is detail of my sculpture "Bleeding Wings 5"