Jean Dubuffet - Artists - Helly Nahmad Gallery

Jean Dubuffet, L'Accueillant, 1973. The present work was a maquette for a work that was originally part of a monumental group of five characters titled Welcome Parade, destined to populate the entrance of the new wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The building's architect, I.M. Pei, had requested Dubuffet be invited to conceive of and install this artwork, but it was never realized for reasons that are still unclear.

Jean Dubuffet, L'Accueillant, 1973
Epoxy paint on polyurethane
81.3 x 43.2 x 30.5 cm. (32 x 17 x 12 in.)
©Helly Nahmad Gallery NY

Jean Dubuffet, Ciseaux I, 1966. A tangled web of red, white, and blue patterns are cut and spliced from multiple aerial perspectives into a single unified construction, revealing a unique vision of a pair of scissors in Jean Dubuffet’s remarkable Ciseaux I. Executed in 1966, it is a highly accomplished large-scale example of the artist’s celebrated Ustensiles Utopiques paintings, in which he applied his signature l’Hourloupe style to a series of ubiquitous, everyday objects.

Jean Dubuffet, Ciseaux I, 1966
Acrylic on canvas
97.2 x 130.2 cm. (38 1/4 x 51 1/4 in.)
©Helly Nahmad Gallery NY

Jean Dubuffet, Le rendez-vous (14 Juillet 1982), 1982. This painting shows an abstract background made of quick brushstrokes of blue, red, beige purple and red lines. three characters occupy fully the space of the canvas. Their depiction is extremely simplified, they all have a large head mostly in shape of a circle, eyes nose and mouth but no hair or ears. They all have a bust painted with a quick oval shape but they have no arms, they all have two legs. The characters are actually a cut out in paper that had been glued on the abstract background. All three figures are depicted similarly with a thick navy line, and they all have red blush on their cheek, though the gender is not defined.

Jean Dubuffet, Le rendez-vous (14 Juillet 1982), 1982
Acrylic and collage on paper mounted on canvas
68 x 100.5 cm. (26 3/4 x 41.5 in.)
©Helly Nahmad Gallery NY

Jean Dubuffet, Groupe de Quatre Arbres (État Définitif), 1970 96 x 100 x 87 cm. (37 7/8 x 39 x 34) Epoxy paint on polyurethane, in 4 parts ©Helly Nahmad Gallery NY. The present work, Group of four trees from 1970 belongs to Dubuffet's acclaimed Hourloupe cycle series from 1962 to 1974. The works created during this period resemble familiar objects and forms and yet these works recall a fantastical parallel universe where the line between the real and the imaginary is blurred. The figures and objects of the Hourloupe cycle all emulate an existing reality or an everyday object. Dubuffet referred to them as a reflection of the tangible as it appears in the mind. It is in this context that one should experience Group of four trees.

Jean Dubuffet, Groupe de Quatre Arbres (État Définitif), (group of four trees)1970
96 x 100 x 87 cm. (37 7/8 x 39 x 34)
Epoxy paint on polyurethane, in 4 parts
©Helly Nahmad Gallery NY