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

'l'he Weekend Australian 31 March 1 April 1984 ee rating ana ty Jean Dubuffet, Ray Hurhu Gallery, Brisbane. .'At 83 years of ago Jean Du– bullet Is as prollllc an artist as. he '¥as 40 years ago when he left his successful · Parisian wine business to devote his time lully to art. His palntlngs and drawtngs on show at Ray Hughes Gal– lery In Brisbane are peopled with the dellghUully expres– sive figures which are at once childlike and sophisticated and wblch are now so charac– teristic of-his work. Dubuffet. who lives and works In Paris. Is one of the major artists to emerge In post-war Europe. He has not 11rcvlously had a full-scale show In Australia so this will tx, a first t,pportunlt , lor many to see a sizeable b, .dy or tural tradition with Its rules lor good picture making, and In fact all analytical thinking, SARAH FOLLE Is suspect. He sees It as lnhlb- Nf Iting our expression and blind- _________;__ Ing us to the real and sponta- neous beauty which Is all his work - In all, 24 mostly around us. smaller works completed be- Dubuflet was himself very tween 19'16 and 1982. The ex- much a product of cultural hlbltlc,n Is particularly a11t at n tradition. As a young man he time when many of our own studied art as well as lltera– Rrtlsts are once mor~ turning ture. art history, philosophy, to the figure and the o\1tslde languages and music, but It world for Inspiration. was only In the art-of children, Dubuflet's obsession hns of primitives and of the men- always been to express the tally Ill - In short what he real world In Its most m1111- called ,tart b[Ut = that he dane detail - In his words. to finally "'l'l5und the unfettered "celebrate the banal". expression . he wanted. His His lifelong subjects havr. Idea. based on those of Jung, been the human figure , the wo.s that this untutored and landscaJ>e and commonplace '• therefore unspoiled art objects He believes ~at cul- l provided a key to a deeper , . ---• -Uty which was shared un- ~ consciously by everyone. . 1,1 Like the early modernists and particularly the surreal– lats Andre Breton and Max Ernst, he studied and collected art brut. It became a catalyst and source of his own Imagery. Looking at the present ex– hibition. It Is dllflcult to be· lleve that Dubuffet's first show at Paris In 1944, Just weeks after the liberation, outraged the art world. The post-war school of Paris. which had p, cvlously cradled the avant garde. was depleted and tired and Its artists wen• content to follow the earlier modemlsts at a sale dlstancr - but not so Dubulfet. His deliberately clumsy tech– nique and rudimentary llgurl's which had more In common with urban gralfltl and acci– dent.al markings than struc– tured Images, ravished accep– ted ta.ate and were sren as anarchical. Forty years later. however. when every rule of tradltlqnal art has been broken In a thou– sand ways, Dubuffet's art can no longer shock, and In fact looks benign. Paradoxically, Dubuffet himself, while stlll elaborating his anti-art stance In both his writing and Im– agery, has become a best seller whose work Is collected avidly by the establlshmenl he thought so stllllng, ·Humorand innocence Despite this, his Images still look good and make some rc– levent statements. While those In the current show have less sense of primordial power than many of his earlier scoured and murky figures, their delightful note of whimsy echo some of his earli– est pictures. Most ol these nre part of a series called Psycho– Sites (1980-82), and they all present figures set against or Into . cellular backgrounds of dense and bright Irregular patches which resemble fan– tastic tapestries or eccentric patchworks. They form cha– otic surfaces where, lor ex– ample, In Le Quotldlen (or Dally News) patches or "solid" primary colour push against hectJc brushy areas or l(lve way to black void In which doodle-like figures seem to be suspended In space. Each work can be rend verti– cally as a two-dimensional landscape or. 'ns the title sug– gests, as a landsca~ of tlw mind. Mnny of the paintings have a mechanical urban d~n- slty, the drawings are all pas– toral. In these the cut--out fig– ures are glued over the scribb– led surface and seem to float about In a most zany fashion . Drbuflet's gawky and squig– gly figures, which are often\ barely there, express a iramut of human emotion and IJl!&ture which ranges from the very funny to the banal Bll!!,, -~– gulshed. They present us 'With !~clings which often hit home with uncanny truth. While some have organic or amoebic shapes, others look as thouirh they'd be at ease In a 11ame of space Invaders. glimpse of 40 years· complt•xlty It does give a real Insight into Dubuffet's artistic concerns, his deft handling of materials, his wit and deeply sympathetic humanism. The works convey ·a sense of the artist's enJOY· ment In making them and Humor and Innocence per– vade most of the works and arr a relirf from the cynical violence of recent times and much recent Imagery. As a counterpoint to this charm, there is an underlying feeling of absurdity and Satre-llkr alienation In mnny of tl11• flt: .. urcs ns they gesture lutllely In their encapsulated cells. The largest and most com- 11lex work. the Le Bivouac (1976), has bren bought by the Queensland Art Gallery and Is on exhibition there. It belongs to a series entitled Theatre de Memoire, and Is a collage of 30 pieces cut from other paint– ings. The memories It contains are of earlier works by Dubuf– fet : for example, thr distinc– tive Interlocking shapes of the Hourloupe series which many will recognise from L'lnconsls– tnnccs In the Australian Na– tlolllll Gallery. As the first contemporary European work acquired by the Queensland gallery (the previous most re– cent work tx,lng a Moholy Nagy of 19421 It Is a timely and appropriate addition to the collection to which Its Insist– ant expression and chaotic surface will bring quite a new dimension. All the works In this exhibi– tion contain contradictions (not least of which Is their art– ful artlessness}, wlll raise questions and pose lew answ– ers. Dubuflet, who once said art must "address the mind If we nrc to make lull use of It", clearly means It to pose ques– tions. While a show of this size can necessarily give only a J ' ' I , li - " they can well be called in his words "celebrations of the everyday, Lill' dance ol life",.u well as c,•lebrntlons of his art. After Brisbane the ahow goes to Melbournt''a Recon- · nalssance Gallery from Aprir 26-May 19. •