Jean Dubuffet

1901–1985

Jean Dubuffet, ‘Monsieur Plume with Creases in his Trousers (Portrait of Henri Michaux)’ 1947
Monsieur Plume with Creases in his Trousers (Portrait of Henri Michaux) 1947
© ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2020
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In Tate Modern

In the Studio: The Disappearing Figure: Art after Catastrophe

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In Tate Liverpool

Constellations: Max Ernst

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In Tate St Ives

Modern Art and St Ives: Meaning and Material

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Biography

Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (31 July 1901 – 12 May 1985) was a French painter and sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so called "low art" and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a more authentic and humanistic approach to image-making. He is perhaps best known for founding the art movement Art Brut, and for the collection of works—Collection de l'art brut—that this movement spawned. Dubuffet enjoyed a prolific art career, both in France and in America, and was featured in many exhibitions throughout his lifetime.

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Art brut Art informel

Artworks

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Film and audio

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    TateShots

    Mark Haddon on Jean Dubuffet

    Author and artist Mark Haddon came to Tate to look at one of his favourite paintings

  • Listen

    Poem of the Month: David Harsent

    This month David Harsent presents his poem on Jean Dubuffet’s Le Arbres de Fluides 1950, and Susan Hiller’s After the …

Features

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  • William Blake The Circle of the Lustful: Francesca da Rimini (The Whirlwind of Lovers) 1824–7

    Tate Etc

    Between terror and ecstasy: Artistic hallucination

    Jean-François Chevrier

    Stories of hallucinations in art and literature date back to the Bible, but the idea of the artistic hallucination is …

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    Art Term

    Art informel

    Art informel is a French term describing a swathe of approaches to abstract painting in the 1940s and 1950s which …
  • Jean Dubuffet, ‘Monsieur Plume with Creases in his Trousers (Portrait of Henri Michaux)’ 1947

    Art Term

    Outsider art

    Outsider art is used to describe art that has a naïve quality, often produced by people who have not trained …
  • Jean Dubuffet, ‘The Exemplary Life of the Soil (Texturology LXIII)’ 1958

    Art Term

    Tachisme

    Term used to describe the non-geometric abstract art that developed in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s characterized by spontaneous …
  • Jean Dubuffet, ‘The Tree of Fluids’ 1950

    Art Term

    Art brut

    Art brut is a French term that translates as 'raw art', invented by the French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe …
  • Jean Dubuffet, ‘Hopes and Options’ 1971

    Art Term

    Graffiti art

    Graffiti art as a term refers to images or text painted usually onto buildings, typically using spray paint

  • Tate Etc

    Microtate 18

    Michael Rakowitz , Mark Haddon , Andy Holden and Richard Aldrich

    Contemporary artists on a work in the Tate collection

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