Lot Essay
Bursting with jazzy vitality, Faubourg Montmartre (Le Déjingandé) epitomises the candy-coloured charm of Dubuffet's popular Paris Circus series.
In 1961 Dubuffet chose to move away from the organic terrains of his Texturology and Materiology pictures to focus instead on the dynamic urban landscape. The artist showed himself here to be an astute and witty social commentator, capturing the noisy bustle of Parisian street and café life in a joyous blaze of summer hues.
In place of the isolated figures who stare blankly from his earlier pictures, Dubuffet populated these bird's-eye views with a cast of bulbous-nosed cartoon characters. They scurry around the jumbled boulevards or drive in their squashed octopus-shaped cars with conscientious purpose. Buildings quiver like jelly in the excitement.
The dizzy playfulness of Faubourg Montmartre is reinforced by numbers and nonsense phrases, which Dubuffet uses to further animate the picture surface. Inscriptions such as Pleure crocodile and Le Déjingadé mimic the announcements of real shop signs and testify to a Duchamp-like fascination with word-play by the artist.
In 1961 Dubuffet chose to move away from the organic terrains of his Texturology and Materiology pictures to focus instead on the dynamic urban landscape. The artist showed himself here to be an astute and witty social commentator, capturing the noisy bustle of Parisian street and café life in a joyous blaze of summer hues.
In place of the isolated figures who stare blankly from his earlier pictures, Dubuffet populated these bird's-eye views with a cast of bulbous-nosed cartoon characters. They scurry around the jumbled boulevards or drive in their squashed octopus-shaped cars with conscientious purpose. Buildings quiver like jelly in the excitement.
The dizzy playfulness of Faubourg Montmartre is reinforced by numbers and nonsense phrases, which Dubuffet uses to further animate the picture surface. Inscriptions such as Pleure crocodile and Le Déjingadé mimic the announcements of real shop signs and testify to a Duchamp-like fascination with word-play by the artist.