Edition 2017
Jean Dubuffet
Born 1901, Le Havre, France. Died 1985, Paris, France.
Born to a family of vintners, Jean Dubuffet took a long time in deciding between a life in commerce or in art. It wasn’t until 1942 that he committed himself to painting definitively. His work is marked by experiments he grouped into different cycles, the longest and most innovative among which is L’Hourloupe (1962-1974). Deeply against the established order, and inspired by his interest in works at the margins of cultural circuits, he avoided all predetermined rules. This would lead him to create the Compagnie de l’Art Brut. His archives, bequeathed to the foundation he created in 1974, are an inexhaustible source of information about his artistic, literary and musical works.