Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 10 : Record of press coverage, March 1982 - May 1984

• l'eal aakand Frantc¥'S''. I8.~t irrational artist comes to Brisbane By PHYLLIS WOOLCOCK ' 'I T was all a matter of net• working," said Ray Hughes, tossing an enigmatic smile across his desk. "I spoke to a New York dealer and a Paris dealer worked with me to set it up." Although the ramifications of net• working on 1he inlcrnalional art scene still escape me, in fishing parlance, I here's no denying 1ha1 netting Jean Duburret for his first full -scale arl show in Auslralia makes a very good catch for 1he direc1or of a Brisbane commercial gallery. Jean Philippe Arlhur Dubuffel, dubbed by an in1ern11ional arl crilic as "the last notable artist or the irrational in France," was born at Le Havre in 190 I and is still painting and sculpting in Pana, He bas been tendered in II many re– trospc,c:tivc shows in u many places u Melba gave rarcwell performances. In 1966 alone be had retrospectives at the Guuenhcim MIIICllm, New York, the Tate Gallery, London, and the Stede– lijk MIIICUm, Amsterdam. Hiuhow or 14 drawingund 12 color worka will open 11 the Ray Hughu Gallery, Enogacra Tcmoc, Red Hill, nut Friday. Ray Hughes, who entered the Bris• bane gallery scene in 1969, aged 22, as its youngest gallery director, had a brier pannership w11h former Molvig student Ian Reece at the beginning of his career at the old Hungarian Club, Red Hill. In 1972, he moved to his pres• ent location and two years later paid his fint visit to Paris. II was then he saw his fint" Dubuffet collection "which l>CCmcd a miracle to me." Lining up Dubuffet resulted from the intcrnallonal "net-working" he has been doing for the artists who show with him. He wen1 to Paris at the end of last year to attend the exhibition he'd arranged there for his super star, Queensland ~inter Davida Allen, who has shown w,t~ him since I973. Then, later, in New York, he made arrang_ements for Davida Allen and Tony Colcing (Vic.), a sculptor, to ex– _hibit in III international survey show of recent paintings and sculpture at the M111Cum ol Modem Art in New York. The 1how's opening in May celebrates a new addition to MOMA. There will be I00 artists exhibiting, four of them from Australia, so on a percentage basis, Ray Hughes has done rather well. He has also been invited 10 put to– gether an exhibi1ion, Five Australians, for a Paris gallery in January, 1985, and is convinced that there's a great in• tercst in seeing Australian art in places like New York and Paris and also that overseas artists arc cager to show I heir work here. He did not meet Duburfcl but says what fin ally clinched 1hc exhibition was 1ha1 Dubuffel considered an Aus• tralian exhibi1ion "an in1crcs1ing idea." "It was 1hc one conlincnl lcfl he'd never ~own in - one of 1hc las1 e~o,ic places for him 10show." There arc a few Dubuffc1s sprinkled ardwld.Aumalia. The Ausiralian Na- 1ionart:iallcry owns a large vinyl on canvas work , which was toured in ·"Genesis of a Gallery" in 1978. DubuITet was the son or a wine mer– ch~nt and the decision between being a painter and merchand isi ng le vin t~gged at him until he was 41. By the lime he had become a full-t ime artist and held his rirll one-man show in Par• I •.i - · ABOVE: Ray Hughes In bis Reel HiU gallery with two or the Dubufftts wbich will be shown. "When I saw my fint Dubuffet collection it !fftned like amiracle to me." LEFT: Jean Dubuffet .. , looking like a benevolt11t Picasso or somebody's grandfather, ,s in 1944, his brilliant contemporary, Salvador Dali, had already shocked a much more shock:ible world. Unlike Dali, whose extraordinary mus1achiocd image is as well known as namboyant behavior and promo1ional ski ll can make it, Dubuffc1s fa ce is un– known here. In his pho10 he looks like a bcncvolenl Picasso or somebody's grandfather - not really a face, one wou ld say, 10 make an in1crviewcr ask him whether he was mad. Perhaps. people who want 10 change the world get used to answering m ange qucs1ions. Also. Dubuffet is repu1cd to have a sense of humor . Instead of crowning his questioner, he gave 1hc reasoned reply: "In my c1hnic ¥roup anybody whose thoughts and opinions vary from the collectively adopted norm is called mad. Even someone who onl y questions the norm is considered ma.~. I 1hink it's all 1he other way round To reach new ways of thinking he con– siders that "everything 1hat has 10 do with good painli ng should be thrown out. 0 He is interested in all possible ways of painting badly. In the past he has of– ten used unsuitable materials like cab– bage and insects' wings simply because he wan1ed to use them and had decided thal 1hcy were completely inappropri• ale. Dubuffet came to art full-time dur– ing the final years of Surrealism and, like the Surrealists, was inspired by /'art brut - "raw art" - the arl of children, ama1curs and the menially deranged . In fact, he has made a collec– lion of an from asylums. Dubuffct's admirers - and he has many - marvel tha1 such an old man can hal'e such a fresh vision. They find in his work 1hc "unselfconscious puri– ty or imagc-makin~ . . . art as opposed 10 picture-making.' A no1ablc cri1 ic, on 1he 01her hand, feels him deluded in10 think ing thal "innocence is a renewable resource" and rinds 1hc figures in his drawings and color works simplr " mock-primi– lil'C prolotypcs" repealed with slight varia1ions. The Courier-Mail had a straighl• from-1he-cra1e look al the work of this famous Frenchman. This is nol an al• 1emp110 rcl'icw ii but I can assure you 1h:11 1his is nol ed ible art ; 1hcre was nothing 1hcre from1hc mulch heap and no, a cabbag,· in sigh1. On being human ? " What can we Abo. 1his showshould nol shock you kno"· aboul being human! We arc in• in 1984, al1hough Oubuffcl has done side: 10 really sec you'd have 10 be non• h,s fa ir , hare of shocking in lhc pasl. human. h_ow can .';'..c know . unless we've Much or 1hc work is coll aged, wi1h go1a talking dog . , dra ,.·n,or pa in 1cd heads and figures He wan1s to change our way of ,1lqltw.l,1ikc cu1-ou1s, onlo pa1n1cd pa• 1hi11king and for this rcason rejects con:· if· pee ofC1awin8, l'Cnlional ideas aboul " pain1ing well." · Som, of 1he framing is heavy and Viclorian and lhc small color works emerge from frames like rolled back til) I rays. Works arc dated from I975-82 and . all the drawings have s1rong, firm lines. I saw them quickly but some could move a slow soul. A mange statement? Let me quote Dubuffe1: " If a work of an docs not make the soul move, ii ma> be 1hc fault of lhc work, or it may jus1 as well be 1hc fault of 1hc soul which is not ready to rcacl al 1he momen1 in which the work is prcsen1cd to ii." .Mier Brisbane. Dubuffe1's worb will be seen al 1hc Reconnaissance, Melbourne, where, in line wi1h his in•.{ 1crna1ional in1cn1ions, Ray Hughc;5 will fim show Brisbane's William Robin- , ion, lhcn works by Chicago Image– makers and 1hc Duburfe1. ·