Lot Essay
"LE DOMINO" IS ONE OF THE FIRST OF DUBUFFET'S "HOURLOUPE" SCULPTURES. THESE SCULPTURES MARK DUBUFFET'S EARLIEST ATTEMPTS TO EXPAND THE RESTRICTIVE PAINTERLY STYLE HE HAD DEVELOPED IN HIS RECENT PAINTINGS INTO THE "REAL" WORLD OF THREE DIMENSIONS. FOR DUBUFFET, THE "HOURLOUPE" WHICH HE ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED FROM DOODLES HE HAD MADE WHILST ON THE TELEPHONE, BECAME NOT MERELY AN ARTISTIC STYLE BUT A WHOLE NEW WORLD INTO WHICH HE FELT INVITED TO PLUNGE. DUBUFFET'S FASCINATION WITH "L'HOURLOUPE", WHICH ENGAGED THE ARTIST FROM 1962 UNTIL 1973, ULTIMATELY LED FROM THE CREATION OF "HOURLOUPE" SCULPTURES TO THE CREATION OF WHOLE "HOURLOUPE" ENVIRONMENTS AND EVEN, IN 1973, AN "HOURLOUPE" BALLET ENTITLED "COUCOU BAZAAR". AS MUCH AS THE "HOURLOUPE" WAS BASED ON THE RESTRICTIVE COLOURING OF RED, BLUE, WHITE AND BLACK, IN HIS PAINTINGS, DUBUFFET ALSO CONFINED HIS CHOICE OF SUBJECT MATTER TO THE MOST ORDINARY OF OBJECTS. THIS ALSO BECAME THE CASE WITH HIS "HOURLOUPE" SCULPTURES. WHAT PRIMARILY CONCERNED DUBUFFET IN HIS THREE-DIMENSIONAL WORK WAS AN EMPHASIS ON THE SEEMINGLY UNREAL ABSTRACT FORMS OF WHICH THEY WERE MADE. IN THE VERY REAL, BUT TOTALLY ABSTRACT PHYSICALITY OF "LE DOMINO" DUBUFFET HAS CREATED A TANGIBLE AND TOTEMIC MONUMENT TO HIS HALLUCINATORY NEW STYLE.