◆ 27 Jean Dubuffet Follow Profil Genre Aztèque signed with the artist's initials, titled, dedicated and dated 'à Germaine et Jean 1er janvier 1946, Bonne année J.D. "PROFIL GENRE AZTEQUE" novembre 1945' on the reverse oil on canvas 65.4 x 54 cm (25 3/4 x 21 1/4 in.) Painted in 1945.
Provenance Mr & Mme Jean Paulhan, Paris (a gift from the artist on 1 January 1946) Galerie de l’Élysée (Alex Maguy), Paris Mr & Mrs Larry Aldrich New York (acquired from the above) Their sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., New York, 30 October 1963, lot 48 Galerie Beyeler, Basel Sir Edward & Lady Hulton, London Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, Stockholm Galerie Bonnier, Geneva Dieter Hauert, Berlin (acquired circa 1975) Acquired from the above by the present owner Exhibited Paris, Galerie René Drouin, Mirobolus Macadam et Cie-Hautes Pâtes de Jean Dubuffet , 3 May - 1 June 1946, no. 20 Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Jean Dubuffet , February - April 1965, no. 11, n. p. (illustrated) Vienna, Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Kunst in Freiheit Moore, Dubuffet, Tobey , 29 May - 27 June 1965, no. 7, n. p. (illustrated) Stockholm, Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, Jean Dubuffet Målningar 1944-1959 , February - March 1967, no. 6 Berlin, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Der unverbrauchte Blick , 29 January - 5 April 1987, n. p. (illustrated) New York, The Museum of Modern Art; The Art Institute of Chicago; Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, High & Low: Modern Art Popular Culture , 7 October 1990 - 15 September 1991, pl. 35, p. 87 (illustrated) Westfälisches Landesmuseum Münster; Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste, Das offene Bild: Aspekte der Moderne in Europa nach 1945 , 15 November 1992 - 31 May 1993, p. 36 (illustrated) Berlin, Galerie Bastian, Dubuffet - Fautrier. Bilder aus einer Berliner Sammlung, 16 Sept - 14 Nov 2014, p. 14 (illustrated) Literature Michael Tapié, Mirobolus Macadam et Cie-Hautes Pâtes de J. Dubuffet, Paris, 1946, no. 15. p. 24 (illustrated) Max Loreau, Catalogue des travaux de Jean Dubuffet Fascicule II: Mirobolus, Macadam et Cie, Paris, 1966, no. 84, p. 58 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay Profil Genre Aztèque is a historic early painting by Jean Dubuffet dating from the early days of his mature artistic career, which truly began in the final days of the Second World War. This picture, which was dedicated and given to his friend, the author Jean Paulhan, featured in Dubuffet’s second exhibition, when he showed a group of Hautes Pâtes , works sharing the heavy, incised impasto visible here. This painting has a rich, overspilling sense of materiality that complements the titular profile, which has been scrawled on the surface with a frenetic energy that speaks of the energy of graffiti and the street as well as timeless cave paintings and the art of the insane. Dubuffet’s increasing interest in Art Brut at this time is evident both in the technique and the content: the titular profile is shown with a manic, rictus grin, all the teeth bared, perhaps recalling images of Xipe Totec, the deity who embodied death and rebirth of the Aztec culture. At the same time, this figure may be ‘aztèque’ according to the word’s usage in the argot , or French slang, so beloved by Dubuffet, in which it means small or stunted. Dubuffet’s ability to compress artistic, cultural and non-canonical notions of representation in a single painting—or even title—was recognised when Profil Genre Aztèque was included in Kirk Varnedoe’s controversial landmark exhibition High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1990. That show, which explored the two-way traffic between art and popular culture, was attacked by critics but attracted huge crowds, a result of which Dubuffet himself would have doubtless approved. Although Dubuffet had made several attempts at painting, it was only in 1942, in the midst of the Occupation of Paris, that he sold his wine business and departed upon a new vocation as an artist, aged forty-one. Within a short amount of time, he was channelling the vivid, direct aesthetic that is encapsulated in Profil Genre Aztèque . Initially working in relative seclusion, Dubuffet soon gained the encouragement of his friend Georges Limbour, who brought more and more people to see his pictures. Among these visitors w
◆ 27 Jean Dubuffet Follow Profil Genre Aztèque signed with the artist's initials, titled, dedicated and dated 'à Germaine et Jean 1er janvier 1946, Bonne année J.D. "PROFIL GENRE AZTEQUE" novembre 1945' on the reverse oil on canvas 65.4 x 54 cm (25 3/4 x 21 1/4 in.) Painted in 1945.
Provenance Mr & Mme Jean Paulhan, Paris (a gift from the artist on 1 January 1946) Galerie de l’Élysée (Alex Maguy), Paris Mr & Mrs Larry Aldrich New York (acquired from the above) Their sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., New York, 30 October 1963, lot 48 Galerie Beyeler, Basel Sir Edward & Lady Hulton, London Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, Stockholm Galerie Bonnier, Geneva Dieter Hauert, Berlin (acquired circa 1975) Acquired from the above by the present owner Exhibited Paris, Galerie René Drouin, Mirobolus Macadam et Cie-Hautes Pâtes de Jean Dubuffet , 3 May - 1 June 1946, no. 20 Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Jean Dubuffet , February - April 1965, no. 11, n. p. (illustrated) Vienna, Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Kunst in Freiheit Moore, Dubuffet, Tobey , 29 May - 27 June 1965, no. 7, n. p. (illustrated) Stockholm, Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, Jean Dubuffet Målningar 1944-1959 , February - March 1967, no. 6 Berlin, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Der unverbrauchte Blick , 29 January - 5 April 1987, n. p. (illustrated) New York, The Museum of Modern Art; The Art Institute of Chicago; Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, High & Low: Modern Art Popular Culture , 7 October 1990 - 15 September 1991, pl. 35, p. 87 (illustrated) Westfälisches Landesmuseum Münster; Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste, Das offene Bild: Aspekte der Moderne in Europa nach 1945 , 15 November 1992 - 31 May 1993, p. 36 (illustrated) Berlin, Galerie Bastian, Dubuffet - Fautrier. Bilder aus einer Berliner Sammlung, 16 Sept - 14 Nov 2014, p. 14 (illustrated) Literature Michael Tapié, Mirobolus Macadam et Cie-Hautes Pâtes de J. Dubuffet, Paris, 1946, no. 15. p. 24 (illustrated) Max Loreau, Catalogue des travaux de Jean Dubuffet Fascicule II: Mirobolus, Macadam et Cie, Paris, 1966, no. 84, p. 58 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay Profil Genre Aztèque is a historic early painting by Jean Dubuffet dating from the early days of his mature artistic career, which truly began in the final days of the Second World War. This picture, which was dedicated and given to his friend, the author Jean Paulhan, featured in Dubuffet’s second exhibition, when he showed a group of Hautes Pâtes , works sharing the heavy, incised impasto visible here. This painting has a rich, overspilling sense of materiality that complements the titular profile, which has been scrawled on the surface with a frenetic energy that speaks of the energy of graffiti and the street as well as timeless cave paintings and the art of the insane. Dubuffet’s increasing interest in Art Brut at this time is evident both in the technique and the content: the titular profile is shown with a manic, rictus grin, all the teeth bared, perhaps recalling images of Xipe Totec, the deity who embodied death and rebirth of the Aztec culture. At the same time, this figure may be ‘aztèque’ according to the word’s usage in the argot , or French slang, so beloved by Dubuffet, in which it means small or stunted. Dubuffet’s ability to compress artistic, cultural and non-canonical notions of representation in a single painting—or even title—was recognised when Profil Genre Aztèque was included in Kirk Varnedoe’s controversial landmark exhibition High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1990. That show, which explored the two-way traffic between art and popular culture, was attacked by critics but attracted huge crowds, a result of which Dubuffet himself would have doubtless approved. Although Dubuffet had made several attempts at painting, it was only in 1942, in the midst of the Occupation of Paris, that he sold his wine business and departed upon a new vocation as an artist, aged forty-one. Within a short amount of time, he was channelling the vivid, direct aesthetic that is encapsulated in Profil Genre Aztèque . Initially working in relative seclusion, Dubuffet soon gained the encouragement of his friend Georges Limbour, who brought more and more people to see his pictures. Among these visitors w
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