New DubuffetAtHome# 1 DubuffetNotesForTheConfined Dubuffet at … at home_EN.pdf · 2020. 9. 10. · Dubuffet at home : Notes for the Well-Read Exhibition September7 – December23,

Dubuffet at home : Notes for the Well-ReadExhibitionSeptember 7 – December 23, 2020

Since last March 31, a few weeks after the beginning of theconfinement, the Foundation has regularly posted on socialnetworks notes in reference to the “Notes pour les fins lettrés”(Notes for the Well-Read) written by Jean Dubuffet in 1945.

Entitled “Notes for the Confined”; “Notes for the Deconfined”, andrecently “Notes for Holidaymakers”, these mailings offered todiscover a quote from the artist, associated with one of hisworks;

Forty “Notes” mailed between March 31 and September 4. Fortyimages seen through the skylights of our computers andtelephones. Forty paintings, sculptures, collages, drawings,gouaches, lithographs, etc. reduced to one image of the samesize…

This exhibition proposes to find the notes and especially theworks of Jean Dubuffet in all their materiality, their real pictorialdimension. A work can be appreciated through its reproduction,but nothing can replace the physical reality of a painting.

With theletter "NotesfortheConfined",inreference tothe"Notespourlesfins-lettrés »(NotesfortheWell-Read)writtenbyJeanDubuffetin1945,theFoundation'steam invitesyou torediscover,ortodiscover,twice aweek - onTuesdaysandFridays - awork by theartist accompaniedbyaquotation from his many writings.Take careofyourself andstay athomewhere you can find Dubuffet!

DubuffetAtHome # 1DubuffetNotesForTheConfinedTYPE SOCIAL NETWORK

Fondation Dubuffet@fondationdubuffet@DubuffetPress

PUBLISHEDTue, March 31st at 4:07 PM Western European Time

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To force the mind out of its usual ruts, carry it offinto a world where the mechanisms of habit nolonger function, where the blinders of habit fly off,and in such a way that everything seems fraught withnew meaning, teeming with echoes, resonances,overtones. That is the effect of a work of art. Shokedby the trauma, all abristle after the bewilderingremoval from their familiar surroundings (like anattacked porcupine sticking out its spines), all thefaculties of the mind are aroused, all its bells startclanging.

March 31

‘‘ Uprooting ’’

Jean Dubuffet, « Notes pour les fins-lettrés », 1945, Translated by Joachim Neugroschel in Mildred Glimcher, Towards an Alternative Reality, New York, Abbeville Press, 1987.

Autoportrait II, 1966

Notes for the Confined

I like closed, well defined places, abolishing whatsurrounds them, creating a world that is within easyreach and can be conveniently inventoried. I findcomfort in confinement. As for the view that thewindows open on, I also like it to be limited. I am nota fan of panoramas, of views that dissolve in thedistance. [...] I take pleasure in the fact that [theplaces] are only partially closed, each of themgiving access to other similar places. I like feelingthus, in a vast continuum, the possibility for thoughtto introduce therein more or less inaccuratelydefined localizations, I also like to feel the fleeting,uncertain character of these localizations.

April 3

‘‘ Places, Sites ’’

Jean Dubuffet, « Bâtons Rompus (Question n°50) ». Translated by Déborah Couette, Fondation Dubuffet.


Jean Dubuffet, 1970Photo Kurt Wyss

April 7

‘‘Boredom, a fertile ground?’’

Jean Dubuffet, « Notes for a televised interview (Appendix A) », 1960. Translated by Ann King, in Dubuffet, Works, Writings, Interviews

I do not really feel any attachment except to theplace where I have lived most of my life, and itseems to me very reasonable that everyone shouldhave this feeling of attachment for their own place,which excludes all others, where they feel exiled. Myown place is Paris, and I should add that I am oftenhomesick for that city. But I think it is very healthyfor an artist to be bored. Boredom is the richcompost that fertilizes the creation of art. It is veryhealthy to be deprived of fun of all kind so that weare forced to create fun with our own hands.

Rue des Petits-Champs, Bombance, 1962


April 8

Paint a face the way you paint an apple ? Never !Thought is more intimately connected withdescription, and if I paint ears I am thinking aboutnoise, if I paint lips I am thinking about speech,teeth, food.

‘‘ Describe by thinking’’

Dubuffet, « Notes pour les fins-lettrés », 1945, Translated by Joachim Neugroschel in Mildred Glimcher, Towards an Alternative Reality, New York, Abbeville Press, 1987.

Jules Supervielle, 1947

Henri Calet, 1947


April 10

Jean Dubuffet, « To perceive », 1958, Translated by D. Couette, Dubuffet Foundation .

There is no need to go far away to look for rarities,everything is there in front of your nose or on thefloor at your feet. You will find everything you arelooking for without having to go anywhere. I am atourist of a particular kind: all picturesque thingsmake me uncomfortable and it is where they aremost absent that my wonder awakens.

‘‘ The wonderat our feet’’

Champ de sable (Texturologie), 1958


April 14

Jean Dubuffet, « Bâtons Rompus (Question n°48) », 1986, Translated by D. Couette, Dubuffet Foundation

Q. – Judging by the frequency with which a table hasbeen the subject of your paintings it seems that youtake a particular interest in tables.

A. – This is the object I want to see first at mydisposal in any home, even if I have nothing to puton it. I have spent many hours bent over tables, atthe end of which the tables appear to me as a mirrorin which the outside world is reflected.

‘‘ La table, miroir du monde extérieur ’’

Table corail, 1953

Table porteuse d’objets, 1955 Meubles et objets, 1952


April 17

Jean Dubuffet to André Pieyre de Mandiargues, 18 October 1957, Translated by D.Couette, FoundationDubuffet.

There is no doubt that the attraction exerted on meby the wall is extremely strong, that my psychic lifeis strongly linked to the wall, and that all mypaintings, regardless of the subject matter, areconstantly polarized by this very strong fondness forthe wall.

‘‘ Dubuffet facing the wall’’

Langage des caves, 1958

Pan de mur ventru, 1945 Angle de mur à l’oiseau perché, 1945


April 21

Jean Dubuffet, interview with Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, 1961, Translated by D.Couette, FoundationDubuffet

As for going to the moon, my feeling is that we willnot be going anytime soon. I do not even want to goand even if the bus would take me there in two hoursI do not think I would bother. There are enoughinteresting things to see without bothering so much.It is a very common mistake to believe that you haveto bother to go far away to see places that aresupposed to be more interesting than the ones youare living in. If you do not know how to take aninterest in the places where you are, you will noteither take an interest in the places you are going tosee.

‘‘ Go to the moon ? ’’

Scène lunatique avec 5 personnages, 1975


April 24

Jean Dubuffet, “In honor of savage values”, 1971, Translated by Kent Minturn, in Polemical objects, res. 46, autumn 2004.

It is when a man is alone, when he is extremelybored, when he can not count on any sort ofentertainment, enjoyment, or celebration from theoutside, that the conditions are ideal for the birth ofa need in him to create himself by his own means,himself alone and for his own use, a theater ofcelebrations and enchantments.

‘‘ Solitude, source of enchantment’’

Affluence, 1961


April 28

Jean Dubuffet, interview with Alexandre Vialatte, 1969, Translated by Déborah Couette, Dubuffet Foundation.

Yes, nature is confined to my house, because I donot like walking, with my lumbago. I rather like tobring nature into a room and hold on to it. More likeeven, redo it my way. Make a nature for my own use.

‘‘ Nature confined ? ’’

Jardin L’Hourloupe, 1966


May 1

Jean Dubuffet to Jean Paulhan, April 1944 Translated by Dubuffet Foundation.

During these bank holidays, you tidy up your stuff. Ihave a bunch of books on my book shelf that havebeen read, so to speak, emptied of their contents:corpses; empty bottles. I decided to replace that bya new kind of library. Nothing but enchanted bottles,which do not empty, you can still drink, they alwaysremain full.

‘‘Bank Holiday’’


May 5

Jean Dubuffet to Marcel Moreau, 27 October, 1969 Translated by Déborah Couette, Dubuffet Foundation.

You talk about solitude and distraught, and I knowthat. But solitude (alienation) is and must be ourfood and our springboard, our source, our lifeblood.I too suffer from solitude and alienation; they burnme like an iron; but I maintain them neverthelesscarefully; I try to aggravate them, feeling that theyare the leaven of my bread, the constitutive reasonsof my being. So courage! confidence! valour! Let usdip our iron! In solitude! In fruitful, invigoratingdesolation!

‘‘ Alienation as Springboard’’

Activation, 1985


May 8

Jean Dubuffet to Édith Boissonnas, 21 December, 1976 Translated by Déborah Couette, Dubuffet Foundation.

I understand you for fleeing from national feasts(and international ones throughout all the tenaciousChristianity) and also flee from them, withouthowever changing place. I escape from them with mymind. I have learnt to do a great many thingsthrough thought.

‘‘ National Day’’

Le Président, 1972


May 12

Jean Dubuffet to Jean-Luc Parant, 27 April 1975, Translated by Déborah Couette, Dubuffet Foundation.

The world, it is true, can be reversed, so that insteadof surrounding us, it is circumscribed by us andtakes a condensed form that fits entirely in the eyesof the beloved.

NB. Jean Dubuffet passed away on May 12, 1985

‘‘ Circumscribed world’’

Jean et Lili Dubuffet, 1983Photo : Kurt Wyss

Notes for the Deconfined

May 15

Jean Dubuffet, “Notes for the well-read”,1946, Translated by Joachim Neugroschel, in Mildred Glimcher,Jean Dubuffet : towards an alternative reality, New York, Pace, 1987.

One can find as much charm and meaning in a dittyplayed by a shepherd on his fife as in a choral massperformed by a grand symphony orchestra. A senseof moderation should preside at festivals (festivalsof the mind as well), and we should halt the stupidtrend of completely ignoring anything that's not thebiggest thing on earth.

‘‘ A sense of moderation’’

Il flûte sur la bosse, 1947


May 19

Jean Dubuffet to Visitors to the Exhibition of his Work in Le Havre, December 1976 Translated by John Tittensor,inJean Dubuffet. Writings on Sculpture, Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden, 2011.

Letting your impulses run free has always seemed tome more likely to bring about discoveries than arecarefully thought out operations.

‘‘ Free run’’

Flux non stop I, 1984


May 22

Jean Dubuffet, « More modest » 1945 Translated by Sophie Berrebi, in Dubuffet and the City: People, Place and Urban Space, Zurich, Hauser & Wirth, 2018.

The Saint-Sulpice fair gives some idea of what it’slike, it’s good but it’s too small. Outside it’s muchbetter! This fair that is outside is so large that onenever gets to the end of exploring it and nothingthere is dolled up, everything is authentic,functional, consistent, living characters, speaks thelanguage of the time (this exciting time of 1945 thatwill appear so attractive to people in 2945 and 3945,but it is even more so for us who find ourselves livingit!). Quickly take a ticket. Of course you must firstput on the suit of our time.

‘‘ More modest’’

Message « …ma santé toujours excellente … », 1944


May 26

Jean Dubuffet, Bâtons rompus (Question n°42), Translated by Déborah Couette, Dubuffet Foundation

...I felt that L’Hourloupe had led me to live in aparallel world of pure invention, locked in solitude.Naturally, that was precisely what it was made for...I longed to come back to life and take root. Contraryto what has been said about me, I am very sociable.Transported into alienation, I feel a lack.

‘‘ Sociability ’’

La vie sociale, 1979


May 29

Jean Dubuffet, Biographie au pas de course [1985] Translated by Déborah Couette, Dubuffet Foundation

I fell in love with making masks that look like thepeople around me. ... It had occurred to me that Icould earn a living by making people their masks.Soon after, it drifted into making puppets. ... Iwould carve the heads out of linden wood, paintthem and Lili would dress them. I used to thinkabout that for a living, too. ... Those were utopianviews.

‘‘ Masks up! ’’

Masque de Lili, 1936

NB. Lili's mask and puppet are currentlypresented in the exhibition "Jean Dubuffet - A barbarian in Europe", MEG, Geneva.


June 2

At that time, I felt a thirst for freedom, a horror ofany constraint. My paintings were about small showsin the city or the countryside, starting with thesubway, which was the theme of a series. [...] I alsomade a travelling bicycle trip with Lili throughoutthe radiant countryside. No cars on the roads at thattime!

‘‘ Desire for freedom’’

Cyclise aux nuages à pattes, 1943

Jean Dubuffet, Biographie au pas de course [1985] Translated by Déborah Couette, Dubuffet Foundation


June 4

Jean Dubuffet, from the poem La Fleur de Barbe, 1960Translated by Sophie Webel, Dubuffet Foundation

How do you find beautiful child

The old man's beard

Long since grown

All sprinkled with tears

Don't you think it has

An effective impact

My beard of embers and blood

My beard of smouldering fire

My burning beard

‘‘ The Beard! ’’

Barbe des colères, 1959


June 9

Jean Dubuffet, “Notes for the Well-Read”, 1945. Translated by Joachim Neugroschel, in Mildred Glimcher, Jean Dubuffet : Towards an Alternative Reality, New York, Pace Publications Inc. / Abbeville Press Publishers, 1987.

A work of art should have a meaning that's soprofound, so universal, so myriad and diverse, thatanyone can drink any beverage he likes from it. Atotem pole at a crossroads. Never (explaining wouldmean draining), never totally deciphered.

‘‘ Cryptogram ’’

Lever de lune aux fantômes, 1951


June16

Jean Dubuffet, Bâtons rompus (Question n°70), 1986 Translated by Sophie Webel, Dubuffet Foundation

Q : What, in your paintings, do you give the mostattention and care to?

A : It is, by far, not the objects or figures but theintervals between them. It is the filling of theseintervals ... that I am constantly striving for. Torepresent nothing, to represent at least what has noname, seems to me a vital task for the painter. Thisis where his action works in its purest form.

‘‘ Represent nothing ? ’’

Site putatif (avec animal, arbres et personnages), 1966


June 19

Jean Dubuffet à Charles-André Chenu, Paris, 27 avril 1975 Translation S. Webel (Dubuffet Foundation).

Isn't reality a patent that each of us has the powerto confer to our own will and fantasy? ... But you area philosopher and I am not. My philosophy is like thefairground bumper little cars. Their journey doesn'ttake them very far. Their impulses are sometimesbroken.

‘‘ My philosophy’’

Trois automobiles, 1982


June 21

Jean Dubuffet, « The Author Responds to a Few Questions », 1946.

Who will note down on a musical stave the noise of achair pulled across the floor, or the noise of anelevator as it starts to move, or the noise of a faucetbeing turned on? It seems to me to be perfectlyconceivable that the music that would be the mostdear to humanity would be a music that wouldincorporate all these noises and all theseintonations and timbres rather than the twelve poorand arbitrary notes in the octave. I can sense thatsomething like this is happening with painting.

‘‘ Music Day’’

Dubuffet avec un archet et une boîte en plastique, 1961Photo Jean Weber


June 23

Jean Dubuffet, « To perceive », 1958, Translated by Dubuffet Foundation.

Many people have thought that by a bias ofdenigration I like to show miserable things. What amisunderstanding! I had wanted to reveal that thosethings which they believe to be ugly, which they haveforgotten to see, are also great wonders.

‘‘ Great wonders’’

L’esprit du bois, 1959


June 30

Jean Dubuffet, Asphyxiating Culture, 1968 Translation by Carol Volk, in Asphyxiating Culture and other writings, New York, Four Walls Eight Windows, 1988

Just as the attraction of sexual play is increased bysocial taboos, the motives for contestation arenourished by the fixity of the established order, andtheir tension decreases when the established orderloses consistency. The swimmer needs water tostroke.

‘‘ Contestation ’’

La patrouille, 1982


July 3

Jean Dubuffet, "Maquettes", 1977, Translated by John Tittensor for Writings on Sculpture, Richter-Verlag -Skulpturenpark Waldfreiden, 2011.

If you do a drawing showing a tree -the ideationaltransposition of a tree - it's interesting ; but if youtake into three dimensions… and if you give it thedimensions of a real tree, one in whose shade youcan shelter… your work has then a very differentimpact on the mind.

‘‘ Under the trees’’

Le Boqueteau, 1969


Jean Dubuffet to Georges Limbour, Vence, August 2, 1961.

It was, for a time very hot, too hot, so I purchased aunit with the tempting name of “air conditioner”,which then turned out to be more modestly a simplefan, evaporating water and not very efficient, andthe weather then cooled off a bit. The sun is almostalways shining but I carefully protect myself.

‘‘ Heatwave’’

July 10

Le vent et l’eau, 1959


Jean Dubuffet to François Gagnon, Paris, February 19, 1968

I was visited by Cl. L. G. - who suddenly, Iunderstand, became a very important state officer.If one were to represent in blue the taste for stateauthorities and in red the taste for subversion(frontal) and libertarian individualism, one wouldobtain for Cl. L. G. a very abrupt ascending curve(blue) and for me a red curve that would be no lessstrong in the ascent.

‘’14th of July ’’

July 14

Paysage tricolore (avec un personnage), 14 juillet 1975


Jean Dubuffet, Bâtons rompus (Question n°199), 1986.

The travels spent waiting for painting exercises arethose for which the destination is not known inadvance. One takes a ticket without knowing whereto.

‘‘ Happy Holiday ! ’’

July 17

Voyage, 1975

Notes for Holidaymakers

Jean Dubuffet, « Notes en vue d’une interview télévisée », 1960.

I'm a man of the North (of France) and I only like theNorth. I don't like the Mediterranean... I don't likesunny skies. They cause drunkenness, a falseeuphoria due to a loss of consciousness, theydiminish lucidity. I prefer the more shaded skies thatencourage concentration and meditation.

‘‘ Going North or South ? ’’

July 24

Station de plaisance, 1980


Jean Dubuffet to Pierre Domec, Paris, 1st of July 1970

What had been intended as a place for a change ofscenery, became, soon after we pitched our tentthere, home. It's not far away once we get there. Anew distance reveals itself; it may even be the placewe came from.

‘‘ A new distance ’’

July 31

Les vacanciers, 1975


Jean Dubuffet to Mr & Ms Raymond Queneau, Le Touquet, August 10, [1965].

To my shame I haven't yet bathed in the sea ...Sometimes I almost reach the seaside to see if I'mnot going to feel an impulse. No impulse. I livelocked up in my studio, tirelessly searching for a waythrough the labyrinths of Hourloupe. To each his ownbeach.

‘‘ A chacun sa plage ’’

August 7

Gratte merluche, Le Touquet, 1964


Jean Dubuffet to Armande de Trentinian, 15 August 1978.

I am on holiday much further away since I've liftedoff the ground; I live perched on my stepladdermaking my “Theatres of memory”. ... The weather iscool and nice with a permanent parasol of clouds.The shops in the rue de Buci are closed for theholidays but you can still find chives to make anomelette.

‘‘15 of August ’’

August 14

La colline boisée, 1977

Jean Dubuffet travaillant à un « théâtre de mémoire », 1976Photo Kurt Wyss

Notes pour les Vacanciers

Jean Dubuffet to Pierre Matisse Paris, 4 August 1953.

We spent a little week in Cassis. We found athundering sun and, in the air, the din of thecicadas; on the ground, that of the motorcycles andthe screeching of the bathers. ... But those thighs!Those thousands and hundreds of thousands oftanned thighs! What an obsession! ... After a fewdays it is a collective erotic festival that appears...

‘‘ One last swim ’’

21 August

Lettrine M, 1961


Jean Dubuffet to Georges Limbour, Vence, 2 August 1961.

The sun is almost always shining ... In town, thesweaty buttocks of the holidaymakers, gathered in aswarming crowd, shine brightly. But I only have todeal with the town when I drive across it hastily frommy home to the studio, and vice versa ... My feelingsabout the people and the place are becoming moreand more psychotic.

‘‘ Back in town ’’

August 28

Piétons et auto, 1979


I had wanted to visit this exhibition (retrospective atthe Tate, London in 1966) only a few days after itsopening. This was in order to avoid attending theopening, as it was customary to wear eveningclothes, which I had always refused to wear. Theorganizers had then, without my knowledge,postponed the date of the opening to the day of myarrival, and I was surprised when I entered themuseum to find the crowd of people, except that theassistants, instead of black ties, wore multicoloredones with tennis costumes.

‘‘ Socializing ’’

September 4

Mondanités, 1975

Jean Dubuffet, « Biographie au pas de course», Paris, 1985.


Documents

New DubuffetAtHome# 1 DubuffetNotesForTheConfined Dubuffet at … at home_EN.pdf · 2020. 9. 10. · Dubuffet at home : Notes for the Well-Read Exhibition September7 – December23,