Word: dubuffet
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...Jean Dubuffet was never a lover of "false" classical art, and there were times when he was not sure he wanted to be an artist. After a few months of formal training in Paris, he decided that he had "nothing to learn in schools." He became a clerk, then a wine merchant, and for a while he was happy. "I was gaining a foothold. To complicate things, I needed a wife, furniture, a maid, a brother-in-law, a car, kids . . . [Then] catastrophe, it took hold of me again. I rented a little atelier on Boulevard Saint-Michel, I locked...
...more of "the foul jobs, the indecent proceedings, the swallowing of indignities, the anguished cavalcades through Paris." Still he managed to put aside a little cash, collect another wife and take a third crack at art. By 1944, after a brief tour of duty in the French air force, Dubuffet was ready for his first one-man show. Already his paintings were dedicated to the proposition that the Western notion of beauty is a "meager and not very ingenious invention...
...more shows, one composed of "portraits cooked and pickled in the memory," touched off volatile French tempers. Furious art lovers tossed tomatoes in protest. Last fall, still searching for new techniques and new modes of expression, Dubuffet moved to Manhattan...
...Landscapes of the Mind" have a weird, inhuman aspect, Jean Dubuffet is not surprised. He is convinced that "art has much to do with madness." He hopes that his paintings contain many "facts" foreign to the objects he intends to represent, and he is happy "even when these facts are delirious or absurd...