Lot Essay
In Spring 1959 Dubuffet commenced his series of "beard" pictures, which he created out of painted fragments from his "texturologies" paintings. These assemblages gave free reign to Dubuffet's playful humour and are a marked contrast in character to the sombre landscapes of the previous years.
The method of assemblage enabled Dubuffet to arrange the cut pieces at random, so that the different surfaces contrast with one another, and the rich diversity of their textures is accentuated. With this method the artist also alluded to a sense of displacement and of experience fragmented by the vagueness of memory.
The artist is creating, not a literal transcription of reality, but a physically present illusion. The head of the man presented exists as a fragment of our imagination, borrowed from a mixture of displaced experiences, which sleep in the corners of our subconscious. Like the composition of memory itself, layer by layer, the image is now brought back to us.
Dubuffet was, throughout his career, interested in the art of early civilizations. The texture which the beard of the man takes, is reminiscent of the natural elements of earth and trees of which primitive man thought himself a part, seeing a continuity between himself and his natural surroundings. The image presented here shares the vitalism and immediacy of the art of earlier primative cultures.
This influence is again present in the manner in which Dubuffet eliminates any use of perspective within the work. Here the head of the man is squeezed into a space too small for it, denying any traditional methods of composition. As in the images of non-Western civilizations, the image is flattened against a plain monochromed background. This is heightened by the simplified erect, static and symmetrical position of the individual presented. Any extremities are compressed into the singular form, disallowing any individuality the sitter may possess to be conveyed.
The subject's entire being is characterised by his beard, which covers most of his face. As the title suggests, it is not the person that is at the centre of the work - it is the beard. As in children's drawings Dubuffet renders what he can most clearly and spontaneously remember of the man, and it is his beard which stands out more than any other feature.
In depersonalizing his subject, Dubuffet has brought him to a universal human level. In this way, he aligns himself against the Western art tradition, and rather than reaching into the character of the man represented, he takes a position of indifference to him. The work is indeed not about the man, but about the impression that the man makes on us.
In Barbes des Songes Fumeux, Dubuffet continues with his desire to represent the everyday, the mundane, the "man on the street". Yet although this desire arose from a relentlessly disciplined and highly theoretical background, we cannot but succumb to the irony and undeniable humour manifest within the work.
The method of assemblage enabled Dubuffet to arrange the cut pieces at random, so that the different surfaces contrast with one another, and the rich diversity of their textures is accentuated. With this method the artist also alluded to a sense of displacement and of experience fragmented by the vagueness of memory.
The artist is creating, not a literal transcription of reality, but a physically present illusion. The head of the man presented exists as a fragment of our imagination, borrowed from a mixture of displaced experiences, which sleep in the corners of our subconscious. Like the composition of memory itself, layer by layer, the image is now brought back to us.
Dubuffet was, throughout his career, interested in the art of early civilizations. The texture which the beard of the man takes, is reminiscent of the natural elements of earth and trees of which primitive man thought himself a part, seeing a continuity between himself and his natural surroundings. The image presented here shares the vitalism and immediacy of the art of earlier primative cultures.
This influence is again present in the manner in which Dubuffet eliminates any use of perspective within the work. Here the head of the man is squeezed into a space too small for it, denying any traditional methods of composition. As in the images of non-Western civilizations, the image is flattened against a plain monochromed background. This is heightened by the simplified erect, static and symmetrical position of the individual presented. Any extremities are compressed into the singular form, disallowing any individuality the sitter may possess to be conveyed.
The subject's entire being is characterised by his beard, which covers most of his face. As the title suggests, it is not the person that is at the centre of the work - it is the beard. As in children's drawings Dubuffet renders what he can most clearly and spontaneously remember of the man, and it is his beard which stands out more than any other feature.
In depersonalizing his subject, Dubuffet has brought him to a universal human level. In this way, he aligns himself against the Western art tradition, and rather than reaching into the character of the man represented, he takes a position of indifference to him. The work is indeed not about the man, but about the impression that the man makes on us.
In Barbes des Songes Fumeux, Dubuffet continues with his desire to represent the everyday, the mundane, the "man on the street". Yet although this desire arose from a relentlessly disciplined and highly theoretical background, we cannot but succumb to the irony and undeniable humour manifest within the work.