Lot Essay
Dubuffet's first experimental assemblages of Little Statues of Precarious Life, were begun in 1954 using everyday industrial materials. These sculptures exemplify the artist's philosophy of Art Brut in the use of common objects functioning as art. With newspaper, steel wool, ironslag, and aluminum foil, the artist transformed these various refuse into amusing human figures. Dubuffet discusses these sculptures:
I have always loved--it is sort of a vice--to
employ only the most common materials in my work,
those that one does not dream of at first because
they are too crude and close at hand and seem
unsuitable for anything whatsoever. I like to
proclaim that my art is an enterprise to
rehabilitate discredited values. (W. C. Seitz,
The Art of Assemblage, New York, 1961, p. 94)
In 1959, Dubuffet again returned to sculpture, first exploring vegetal substances such as tobacco leaves, banana peels, orange rinds, herbs, trees, vines and flowers. He also gathered driftwood from the beaches of the Mediterranean finding amazing figurations and sometimes applying his own addition to fully realize his image.
L'Aveugle or Blind Man is made from crumpled aluminum foil which the artist blackened.
Certainly in these statuettes the artistic aim of
Dubuffet had nothing to do with sculpture as we
know it. What he was after was a manifestation of
the earth as an earthy, real thing. The result is
that these common and truly unbeautiful materials
never previously thought of as acceptable in art
take on an absolute value precisely because an
artist has treated them as art, has made art of
them. (A. Franzke, op. cit., p. 91)
The Blind One is a small head with a defenseless,
vulnerable look which the blind so often have
because, unable to watch others, they have never
learned to form those social masks we carry about
with us. This is a remarkable little statue which
has the essentially haptic form--emphasizing touch
expressions and muscular sensations--used by the
blind in their own art expressions. (exh. cat.
Museum of Modern Art, 1962, op. cit., p. 158)
This work is one of only two sculptures executed in aluminum foil by the artist. It was given by Dubuffet to the Colins in March of 1962 as an expression of gratitude for their help with his exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.
I have always loved--it is sort of a vice--to
employ only the most common materials in my work,
those that one does not dream of at first because
they are too crude and close at hand and seem
unsuitable for anything whatsoever. I like to
proclaim that my art is an enterprise to
rehabilitate discredited values. (W. C. Seitz,
The Art of Assemblage, New York, 1961, p. 94)
In 1959, Dubuffet again returned to sculpture, first exploring vegetal substances such as tobacco leaves, banana peels, orange rinds, herbs, trees, vines and flowers. He also gathered driftwood from the beaches of the Mediterranean finding amazing figurations and sometimes applying his own addition to fully realize his image.
L'Aveugle or Blind Man is made from crumpled aluminum foil which the artist blackened.
Certainly in these statuettes the artistic aim of
Dubuffet had nothing to do with sculpture as we
know it. What he was after was a manifestation of
the earth as an earthy, real thing. The result is
that these common and truly unbeautiful materials
never previously thought of as acceptable in art
take on an absolute value precisely because an
artist has treated them as art, has made art of
them. (A. Franzke, op. cit., p. 91)
The Blind One is a small head with a defenseless,
vulnerable look which the blind so often have
because, unable to watch others, they have never
learned to form those social masks we carry about
with us. This is a remarkable little statue which
has the essentially haptic form--emphasizing touch
expressions and muscular sensations--used by the
blind in their own art expressions. (exh. cat.
Museum of Modern Art, 1962, op. cit., p. 158)
This work is one of only two sculptures executed in aluminum foil by the artist. It was given by Dubuffet to the Colins in March of 1962 as an expression of gratitude for their help with his exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.