Tribute to Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985)

Museum TV

Publié le 14 May 2025

**The ‘Asphyxiating Culture’ more than a principle, a plastic art**

Jean Dubuffet, painter, sculptor and visual artist, was born on 31 July 1901 in Le Havre and died on 12 May 1985. To mark the occasion, Museum TV is paying tribute to the artist, with a special evening on the TV channel, and available on demand on the various replay platforms.

Portrait of Jean Dubuffet in black and white, New York, 1951-1952 photo K. Bell-Reynal — *Jean Dubuffet, New York, 1951-1952 (photo K. Bell-Reynal)*

In 1968, Jean Dubuffet published The Asphyxiating Culture. This work covers the thinking of the famous artist. Liberating art, an objective that led him towards ‘art brut’. In 1973, Pierre Dreyfus commissioned a monumental work covering 2000m2. The Salon d'été, intended as a place for car factory workers to relax, became a source of conflict between the artist and the Renault management. This project introduced the artist's late style. Imbued with his imaginary world, the Hourloupe and the COUCOU BAZAR.

View of the Salon d'été epoxy model painted with polyurethane by Jean Dubuffet — *Jean Dubuffet, Salon d'été, model, 1974, epoxy painted with polyurethane, 565 x 474 cm, Périgny-sur-Yerres, Fondation Dubuffet*

This very special atmosphere is the result of a process enhanced by his travels such as Algiers, Buenos Aires, Italy, New York... But also by the influence of his contemporaries such as Pierre Matisse, son of the renowned painter.

Dubuffet moved towards an art of simplicity, a spontaneous creation. He coined the term ‘art brut’ in 1945. The main sources of this art were asylums, mediumistic art and the art of the marginalised and eccentric. These inspirations are rediscovered from an angle devoid of academic technical conventions.

"The old aspiration of thought to cover a very wide field, too wide, with a single glance fogs its view. A philosophy which took the side of fragmentary fields considered one after the other without concern for making them communicative, and which applied this technique stubbornly, would undoubtedly make some very fertile discoveries. If it were to take the side of incoherence, or at least of a coherence that is not so far-reaching, of a coherence with drawers, thought would probably see itself endowed with an astonishing renewal of its strengths." Jean Dubuffet

The multiplication of techniques and mediums gives Dubuffet's production all its complexity and its path towards a unique universe. The METRO series in gouache on brightly coloured paper to his RADIOUS EARTHS drawings in Indian ink on paper such as Radieux météore from 1952. His interest in natural elements and botany is revealed in the use of butterfly wings for Le strabique (1953). His taste for the monumental is illustrated by the Closerie Falbala, which was listed as a Historical Monument in 1998.

Gouache on paper entitled Métro by Dubuffet. Pink, red and blue figures emerge from a subway door. — Dubuffet, Radieux météore, 1952, Indian ink on paper, 50 x 65 cm

Jean Dubuffet in New York, The Group of Four Trees

Structure de 12 mètres de hauteur dans la ville de New York en forme d'arbre proche des champignons, réalisé en époxy peint au polyuréthane intitulé Groupe de quatre arbres par Dubuffet

The visibility of these monumental sculptures in public spaces has contributed to the artist's reputation. The theme of the tree is one of the most spectacular evocations of the parallel world of L'Hourloupe. The 1972 Group of Four Trees was the first commission by David Rockefeller, President of the Chase Manhattan Bank near Wall Street in New York. Dubuffet obtained the commission through Gordon Bunshaft, architect of the Chase Manhattan Bank headquarters.

As the title suggests, the work is made up of four trees whose trunks are evoked by verticality and whose foliage by horizontal elements.

This monumental group in epoxy painted with polyurethane was built in the artist's new workshops in Périgny-sur-Yerres, based on a model dating from 1970-1971. The 12-metre-high group was inaugurated on October 24th of 1972.

Ensuring respect for his work

In the 1970s, Jean Dubuffet created his own foundation with the aim of concentrating a large part of his production in one place. The Dubuffet Foundation is organised on two sites. One in Périgny-sur-Yerres in the Val-de-Marne department and the other in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.

Vue sur La Closerie Falbala réalisée en époxy et béton. Cet ensemble en plein air à Périgny-sur-Yerres peut être visité.

The marketing of art brut in the 1970s and 1980s enabled this movement to develop. Most of the growth took place in Western Europe and the United States. Artists such as the American Thornton sr. Dial and the Dutchman Willem van Genk follow in the artistic footsteps of Dubuffet, who died 40 years ago.

On this occasion, Museum TV pays tribute to Jean Dubuffet and invites you to watch our documentary “The Closerie Falbala - In the eye of de Jean Dubuffet” and his entire body of work on our video-on-demand platform.