1960s Jean Dubuffet, Composition (Webel 775-779), La Fleur De Barbe Print

Phototype on vélin d’Arches paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition; never framed or matted. Notes: From the volume, La Fleur de Barbe, 1960. Published by Jean Dubuffet, Paris; Printed by l’imprimerie Duval, Paris, March 1960. Excepted from the volume (translated from French), The text the frontispice and the four Barbes were made by the artist using l’encre de chine and were reproduced by phototype, and printed on the presses of the l’imprimerie Duval in March 1960 in D examples on vélin d’Arches, numbered I to D.

JEAN DUBUFFET (1901-1985) was a French painter and sculptor of the Ecole de Paris (School of Paris). His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called “low art” and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a more authentic and humanistic approach to image-making. He is perhaps best known for founding the art movement art brut, and for the collection of works—Collection de l’art brut—that this movement spawned. Dubuffet enjoyed a prolific art career, both in France and in America, and was featured in many exhibitions throughout his lifetime. Dubuffet achieved very rapid success in the American art market, largely due to his inclusion in the Pierre Matisse exhibition in 1946. His association with Matisse proved to be very beneficial. Matisse was a very influential dealer of contemporary European Art in America, and was known for strongly supporting the School of Paris artists. Dubuffet’s work was placed among the likes of Picasso, Braque, and Rouault at the gallery exhibit, and he was one of only two young artists to be honored in this manner. A Newsweek article dubbed Dubuffet the ‘darling of Parisian avant-garde circles,’ and Greenberg wrote positively about Dubuffet’s three canvases in a review of the exhibit. In 1947 Dubuffet had his first solo exhibition in America, in the same gallery as the Matisse exhibition. Reviews were largely favorable, and this resulted in Dubuffet having at least an annual, if not a biannual exhibition at that gallery.