New York Gallery

Us-France-Dubuffet

Pedestrians admire 27 October 1972 a Jean Dubuffet sculpture at the Chase Manhattan Plaza in New York City. Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) was born in Le Havre, France. He moved to Paris in 1918 to study painting at the Academie Julian, but after six months he left the Academie to study independently. In 1924, doubting the value of art, he stopped painting and took over his father's business selling wine. He took up painting again in the 1930s, but again stopped, only turning to art for good in 1942. Influenced by Hans Prinzhorn's book Artistry of the Mentally Ill, Dubuffet coined the term Art Brut for art produced by non-professionals working outside aesthetic norms, such as art by mental patients, prisoners, and children. Dubuffet sought to create an art as free from intellectual concerns of that as Art Brut, and his work often appears primitive and child-like. AFP PHOTO / AFP PHOTO

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