January 07, 2010

Visual language of Jean Dubuffet


Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) is famous for his paintings and installations that made him one of the first figures of Art Brut. He is also an author who enjoyed playing with syntactic forms of language. His first book, Ler dla canpane issued in 1948. Through his publications, Dubuffet mixed poetry, portmanteau words and puns to study how language works in conjunction with typography and layout. Between 1962 and 1974, he worked on the serie of l'Hourloupe, a project involving paintings, sculptures, installations and texts. These creations are distinguished by flat areas of red, blue, white and black like the illustrations made for La Botte à Nique, published in 1973. Near the Surrealists in the 40s, then a member of the College of Pataphysics in the 60s, Jean Dubuffet always reflected on language's concepts. He invented a poetic and visual slang still unique.


Currently, the librairie loliée offers :
  • [Dubuffet (Jean)] - (Paulhan (Jean). Lettre à Jean Dubuffet. Paris, Galerie René Drouin, 1944, booklet in-8. Catalogue of the exhibition of paintings and drawings by Jean Dubuffet at the galerie Drouin from october to novembrer 1944. First edition of the preface by Jean Paulhan.
  • [Dubuffet (Jean)] - Guillevic. Elégies. Avec une lithographie de Jean Dubuffet. Paris, Le Calligraphe, 1946, in-8. First edition with an original lithograph in colors by Dubuffet. Limited to 306 copies on Rives paper. Copy with a dedication from the author to the writer Alain Bosquet.
  • Dubuffet (Jean). Ler dla canpane. Paris, l’Art Brut, 1948, in-12. Firt edition of the first book written by Dubuffet . 6 engravings in black.
  • Dubuffet (Jean) - Paulhan (Jean). La Métromanie ou les dessous de la Capitale. Par J. Paulhan, calligraphié et orné de dessins par son ami J. Dubuffet. Paris, s.é., 1949, in-12 , publisher's binding. First edition limited to 150 copies, entirely lithographed.
  • Dubuffet (Jean). Paintings by Jean Dubuffet. New York, Pierre Matisse Gallery, 1950, booklet in-8 , illustrated cover. Catalogue with 4 original lithographs by Dubuffet.
  • [Dubuffet (Jean)] – Limbour (Georges). L’Art Brut de Jean Dubuffet. Tableau bon levain à vous de cuire la pâte. Paris, Drouin, 1953, in-4, cover and case. First edition. Many reproductions in black and colors.
  • Dubuffet (Jean) – Volboudt (Pierre). Les Assemblages de Jean Dubuffet, signes Sols Sorts par Pierre Volboudt. Paris, F. Hazan, 1958, in-4, in leaves, publisher's case. Edition with 17 plates in black and colors. Limited to 770 copies, this one on white velum paper.
  • Dubuffet (Jean). La Fleur de Barbe. S.l., s.n.é., 1960, in-folio, in leaves, folder. 4 compositions by Jean Dubuffet. Limited to 500 copies on Arches paper, this one with a dedication to the writer and member of the college of pataphysics Maurice Saillet.
  • Dubuffet (Jean). L’Hourloupe. Gouaches. Paris, Galerie Claude Bernard, 1964, small in-4, publisher's binding. Catalogue publisehd for the exhibition of gouaches by Dubuffet at the Gallery Claude Bernard in december 1964. Text by Hubert Damisch.
  • Dubuffet (Jean). Parade Funèbre pour Charles Estienne. Paris, Jeanne Bucher, 1967, in-4, illustrated cover. Édition with black and white illustrations by Dubuffet. Limited to 450 copies.
  • Dubuffet (Jean). La Botte à Nique. Genève, Albert Skira, Les Sentiers de la Création, 1973, in-8, in leaves, illustrated cover, publisher's folder and case . First edition originale with numerous illustrations in colors by Dubuffet. One of the 165 copies on "Arches à la cuve" paper, mumbered and signed by the artist, including a serigraph in colors separately presented.