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Jean Dubuffet : brutal beauty / edited by Eleanor Nairne.

Contributor(s): Publication details: Munich : Prestel, 2021.Description: 287 pages : illustrations (black and white, and colour) ; 29 cmISBN:
  • 9783791359793
Subject(s):
Contents:
Matter and memory -- True face -- Beauty and the brut / Eleanor Nairne -- Ladies' bodies -- Mental landscapes -- Beauty degree zero / Kent Mitchell Minturn -- The garden -- Precarious life -- Statues also live: Jean Dubuffet's precarious, creaturely life / Rachel E. Perry -- Texturology -- Paris circus -- Scintillating matter, seething life: from the 'texturologies' to 'Paris circus' / Sarah Wilson -- Art brut, 1945 -- The collection returns -- Jean Dubuffet: the artist and art brut--deep-rooted relationships / Sarah Lombardi -- L'hourloupe -- Coucou bazar -- The high seas of L'hourloupe / Sophie Berrebi -- Theatres of memory -- Non-place -- The swallow and the dagger / Camille Houzé.
Summary: Featuring newly commissioned essays and photography of rarely exhibited works, this book highlights the radicalism of Jean Dubuffet, who was one of the most provocative voices of the postwar avant-garde. In 1940s occupied Paris, Jean Dubuffet began to champion a progressive vision for art; one that rejected classical notions of beauty in favor of a more visceral aesthetic. Taking a pioneering approach to materiality and technique, the artist variously blended paint with sand, glass, tar, coal dust, and string. At the same time, he began to assemble a collection of Art Brut--work that was made outside the academic tradition of fine art--even visiting psychiatric wards from 1945 to collect work by patients. This book features texts from leading scholars and is accompanied by images that illuminate Dubuffet's attempts to move beyond the artistic expectations of his time. The works are grouped into six thematic sections that focus on specific series, from his graffiti-inspired "Walls" and his notorious portrait series, "People are Much More Beautiful Than They Think" to the "Corps de dames," a controversial series of "female" landscapes, and his anthropomorphic sculptures, "Little Statues of Precarious Life."

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, 11 February - 23 May 2021 [postponed to 17 May - 22 August 2021].

Contains bibliographical references (pages 273-282) and index.

Matter and memory -- True face -- Beauty and the brut / Eleanor Nairne -- Ladies' bodies -- Mental landscapes -- Beauty degree zero / Kent Mitchell Minturn -- The garden -- Precarious life -- Statues also live: Jean Dubuffet's precarious, creaturely life / Rachel E. Perry -- Texturology -- Paris circus -- Scintillating matter, seething life: from the 'texturologies' to 'Paris circus' / Sarah Wilson -- Art brut, 1945 -- The collection returns -- Jean Dubuffet: the artist and art brut--deep-rooted relationships / Sarah Lombardi -- L'hourloupe -- Coucou bazar -- The high seas of L'hourloupe / Sophie Berrebi -- Theatres of memory -- Non-place -- The swallow and the dagger / Camille Houzé.

Featuring newly commissioned essays and photography of rarely exhibited works, this book highlights the radicalism of Jean Dubuffet, who was one of the most provocative voices of the postwar avant-garde. In 1940s occupied Paris, Jean Dubuffet began to champion a progressive vision for art; one that rejected classical notions of beauty in favor of a more visceral aesthetic. Taking a pioneering approach to materiality and technique, the artist variously blended paint with sand, glass, tar, coal dust, and string. At the same time, he began to assemble a collection of Art Brut--work that was made outside the academic tradition of fine art--even visiting psychiatric wards from 1945 to collect work by patients. This book features texts from leading scholars and is accompanied by images that illuminate Dubuffet's attempts to move beyond the artistic expectations of his time. The works are grouped into six thematic sections that focus on specific series, from his graffiti-inspired "Walls" and his notorious portrait series, "People are Much More Beautiful Than They Think" to the "Corps de dames," a controversial series of "female" landscapes, and his anthropomorphic sculptures, "Little Statues of Precarious Life."