Jean Dubuffet and Art brut
Jean Dubuffet is still considered one of the great pioneers of European post-war painting. Having taken a few detours before finding his way to painting, his affinity for the visual arts became apparent early on during his school years. He made his first trip to Paris in 1918, intending to become an artist. He attended painting classes at the Académie Julian for six months. However, he eventually abandoned his studies. After traveling to Italy and completing his military service, he returned to his birthplace, Le Havre, in 1925, where he initially worked in his parents' wine business. He decided to devote himself exclusively to art in Paris in 1942. He had his first solo exhibition two years later at Galerie René Drouin, the leading avant-garde venue. Influenced by the undisguised forms of expression found in children and mentally ill people, Dubuffet reached a fundamental rejection of the aesthetic and moral values of Western culture. After a trip to Switzerland, he began collecting art objects that defied cultural norms, coining the term “art brut.” A little later, he wrote: “True art is always where you don't expect it. Where no one thinks of it, or calls it by its name." (Jean Dubuffet, excerpt from the foreword to the catalog “L'art brut préféré aux arts culturels” for the exhibition “Art brut,” Galerie René Drouin, Paris, 1949) This attitude resulted in a great willingness to take risks and an openness that found expression in his art through its enormous versatility and stylistic diversity. Like Pablo Picasso, his overall oeuvre can be divided into several periods in which he repeatedly abandoned previous achievements to create something new. His oeuvre ranges from the archetypal figures of the 1940s to the impetuous outbursts of gestural brushstrokes in his last paintings. The diversity of content finds its formal counterpart in using and combining various materials. Throughout his creative periods, Dubuffet's richly diverse oeuvre challenged traditional concepts of art and aesthetics, establishing new modes of expression. His influence on later generations of artists and his contribution to opening up the idea of art are considered his incredible legacy, making him one of the key innovative figures in 20th-century European painting.

"Lampe et Balance I" from 1964 and the "L'Hourloupe" cycle
The works of the “L'Hourloupe” cycle were created between 1962 and 1974, constituting the most extended creative period in Jean Dubuffet's oeuvre. According to the artist, “hourloupe” was “invented because of its sound.” In French, it conjures up images of something or someone whimsical or grotesque, yet with a tragic or menacing aura (cf. Jean Dubuffet, Elocution faite à l'occasion de l'inauguration du groupe de quatre arbres, in: Jörn Merkert, Ingrid Krüger, Dubuffet Retrospektive, Berlin 1980, p. 368). The works in this cycle are easy to identify, thanks to an unmistakable style that sets them apart from his previous works. Like a biomorphic puzzle, black-edged shapes stretch across the canvas in the “Hourloupe” works. They are filled with red or blue lines and color fields, with the spaces between them colored in white. It is always the same pure colors he used to create works strongly reminiscent of the French flag.
The inspiration for this celebrated group of works is said to have been small sketches that Dubuffet made on paper with red, blue, and black ballpoint pens while talking on the phone. He masterfully transfers this principle to the big screen and, as is typical of his work, elevates everyday sketches and the seemingly mundane to art. Although the “Hourloupe” works appear almost abstract, their titles reveal what Jean Dubuffet had in mind when he created them, as is the case with our work “Lampe et Balance I” from 1964. At first glance, the eye is drawn to the characteristic tapestry of colors composed of individual shapes extending to the canvas's outer edges. With the reference in the title, lamp and scale, two objects eventually emerge from the web of colors upon closer inspection: an old wick lamp on the left and a set of scales with two pans on the right. They are placed on a table that takes up almost the entire pictorial space, as can be guessed from the shortened table legs at the bottom of the picture. Jean Dubuffet performs a virtuoso balancing act between classic still life and the maximum dissolution of form. By dispensing with any perspective, the completely unrestricted use of color, and the puzzle-like arrangement of intersecting individual forms, he liberates himself entirely from traditional stylistic means and playfully overrides our conventional ways of seeing things.




The year “Lampe et Balance I” was created, Jean Dubuffet's “Hourloupe” works were exhibited for the first time at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. Two years later, the artist gave the painting to his friend, Dr. Jacqueline Porret-Forel. She was known as a great patron of Art Brut, particularly of Aloïse Corbaz. She was also a founding member of the “Collection de l'Art Brut” in Lausanne. The museum was established from Jean Dubuffet's collection of Art Brut objects, which he donated to the city in 1972. In a letter to the artist thanking Jean Dubuffet for “Lampe et Balance I,” Dr. Porret-Forel found the following beautiful words: “We are fascinated with the diverse character of ‘Lampe et Balance [I],’ which changes with every glance... You could not have made us happier.” [AR]