Textures (Phénomènes, no. 11)

Artist Jean Dubuffet (French, 1901-1985)

Publisher Jean Dubuffet, [Paris], 1959

Printer lithographs: Jean Dubuffet, Paris; text: l’Imprimerie Fequet et Baudier, Paris

Date1959

DimensionsBox: H: 26 1/4 in. (667 mm); W: 18 11/16 in. (474 mm); Depth: 1 1/8 in. (28 mm).
Page (untrimmed): H: 25 1/8 in. (638 mm); W: 17 7/8 in. (454 mm).
Leaf (untrimmed): H: 25 1/8 in. (638 mm); W: 17 13/16 in. (452 mm).

MediumOriginal prints: 18 lithographs. Text: letterpress (typeface: Futura). Paper: Arches cream wove paper, watermarked.

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineGift of Molly and Walter Bareiss

Object number

1984.411

Not on View

Label TextWidely regarded as the most important French artist to emerge at the end of World War II, Jean Dubuffet was famous for promoting “l’Art Brut” (“Brutal Art”). Like the art of children or of the mentally ill, Art Brut looked untutored, full of vitality, and often irresistible in its directness—“art at its purest and crudest,” according to Dubuffet. However, the artist’s contempt for aesthetic and academic conventions did not preclude the creation of (perhaps unintentionally) beautiful works of art, like his series of portfolios of 324 lithographs, Les Phénomènes (The Phenomena), created from 1958 to 1962. Dubuffet drew inspiration from soil, sand, stones and rock, pavement, walls, rusty metals, decaying substances, vegetation, mist, and dust. He sometimes even mixed actual organic matter with his lithographer’s ink. But the resulting lithographs do not depict any texture in particular. Rather, they evoke the sense of a texture, and the title for each print was prompted by what sensation of mood or effect the image might call to mind. Les Phénomènes is thus an impressive, abstract encyclopedia of sorts, both recording and provoking awe for the world’s minute details and surface patterns.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Jean Dubuffet: Prints and Books from the Bareiss Collection, Apr. 26-Aug. 31, 1986, plates 7,9,17.