La botte à nique (Les sentiers de la création)

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La botte à nique (Les sentiers de la création)

Artist Jean Dubuffet (French, 1901-1985)

Publisher Albert Skira, [Lausanne], 1973

Printer Roto-Sadag S.A., Geneva

Author Jean Dubuffet (French, 1901-1985)

Date1973

DimensionsSlipcase: H: 14 1/8 in. (359 mm); W: 9 5/8 in. (245 mm); Depth: 2 3/8 in. (61 mm).
Book: H: 8 5/8 in. (219 mm); W: 6 9/16 in. (166 mm); Depth: 1 1/4 in. (32 mm).
Page: H: 8 7/16 in. (25 mm); W: 6 7/16 in. (164 mm).
Portfolio: H: 9 1/16 in. (230 mm); W: 14 3/16 in. (360 mm); Depth: 3/8 in. (10 mm).
Leaf: H: 8 1/4 in. (210 mm); W: 12 9/16 in. (319 mm).

MediumOriginal print: screenprint in white, red, blue, and black, on brown laid paper mounted on white cardstock. Reproductions and text: photo-etchings of a handwritten manuscript and paper collages with ink, some in colors, on Arches cream wove paper.

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineGift of Molly and Walter Bareiss

Object number

1984.428

Not on View

DescriptionJean Dubuffet, La botte à nique. Text by Dubuffet (1973) Jean Dubuffet collected what he called “raw art” (works done by the mentally ill, prisoners, and other socially marginalized individuals). He wanted to make art that was similarly “pure” and spontaneous, and not dependent upon cultural traditions. In 1962, while talking on the phone, Dubuffet unconsciously made a series of doodles that would develop into the Hourloupe Cycle, a 12-year period in which he focused on creating a “mental universe”. For Dubuffet, the ambiguous nature of his designs questioned conventional interpretations of reality. For La botte à nique, Dubuffet created drawings with felt tip markers. These were cut out and pasted to paper. The designs were then reproduced with a facsimile of his hand-written text in his own invented jargon. The reproduced handwriting visually duplicated the witty and naïve nature of Dubuffet’s language. Dubuffet was interested in wordplay and the ambiguous use of language. For example, the name ‘hourloupe’ comes from the French words for hurler (to yell), hululer (to screech), and loup (wolf). La botte à nique whimsically translates as The Boot with Screws, but sounds like “la botanique” (“botany”).

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Splendid Pages: the Molly and Walter Bareiss Collection of Modern Illustrated Books, Feb. 14--May 11, 2003.