Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985)

In the discussion of his series, Théâtres du Mémoire, Dubuffet had remarked "In these assemblages there appear commingled sites and scenes which are the constituent parts of a moment and act of looking. Of looking with the mind, we should say, if not the immediate looking with the eyes. One must not confuse what the eyes apprehend with what happens when the mind takes it in. In any single instant the eyes see only a side facing them, they converge on a small field. The mind totalizes; it recapitulates all the fields; it makes them dance together. It stirs them together, it exchanges them, in it everything joins in movement. It transforms them too, it reworks them in its own guise." (Quoted in A. Frankzs, op. cit., p. 247). What the eye apprehends of an image is never a straightforward transference to the mind's perception of it. Rather, the mind conjures up a proliferation of other images that relate to the original image. The complex layering of images, and with tangential associations, is to a degree what Dubuffet meant by "theater of memory."

His assemblage technique unifies isolated, fragmented forms into a complete whole. The overall effect does not allow the viewer's eyes to rest on one specific area; rather, it allows the gaze to scan the surface of the painting. With Diversions, Dubuffet has created a mosaic-like effect with segmented areas populated with figures and various textured collage elements.



Fig. 1 Dubuffet at work on Théâtres de mémoires, January 1976, photograph by Kurt Wyss