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

,,. The Cou r i e r -Mail 30 Mar ch 1984 An exciting acquisition: QUEENS .AND Art Gallery Arl ReYlew has purcliased Jean Dubuf- ics (outsiders, in fact), as well fet's u Bivouac from the cur- as the art of children, and final– rent exhibition of paintings ly, donated most of this collec– and drawings by the famous tion to the Muse de L'Art Brut h · R h in Lausanne, Switzerland. Frenc artist, at ay Hug cs. (I shall never forget the expc- The exhibition, minus u Bi- riencc of this unique museum, I vouac, which already hangs in visited in 1978). What is the sc– the Queensland Art Gallery, cret of Dubuffet's enormous will be on view until April 12. success, of the admiration he u Bivouac is of the series has won all over the world, from "Theatre de Memoire", and the day of his first exhibition in was painted in 1976. It is of Paris, almost immediately after large format and like many of the Liberation, until the present Dubuffet's works (and there are day (he is now 83 years of age), many, believe me: a catalogue when he has more followers of them, by 1980, consi~ted of than ever, and is carried by the 31 volumes), came into !Jcing new wa\'e of raw art and Nco– from cutting-out (from his own Dadaism? It is quite a philo– works), assembling 30 paper sophical question and space al– com ponen ts, painted with lows only a few hints. acrylics, and collageing them One secret attraction must be on to canvas. In other words: that Dubuffet paints and draws out of making an ima$e, then as we all think we could or destroying it, QUt of a play with would like to ourselves, or can scissors, out of the freedom al- remember we did when we were lowed by collage, out ofcreative little children, before we had i ~ s t i nc t for ass e '!' b I ing- been put into the st~a_ightjacket disparate parts, to amve at a of conventions, traditions, "cor– synthcsis that need not please, reel" drawing and "good but never bores, and is a com- taste", all of which Dubuffet pelling work of"Art Brut". ha, been intent to ignore. Art Brut (Dubuffet himself Furthermore, in the last dee- coined the term in 1949) is ades, the idea that our language something in which Dubuffet is a prison, because it shapes never lost faith. He even made a our way of perceiving and mak- , large collection of Art Brut, ing decisions, has gained wide • embracing the art of paychia- ground. Ddbuffet, even i!I b/s tric patients, untaught visionar- young days, has been interatQCI in linguistics and philosophy. Artists, writers, poets and com– posers of the 201h Century have tried to break out from the con– finements of language and cul– ture to gain new awarenesses. Dubuffet is nol alone. but has been one of the major artists emerging in France after World War II. Of course, Dubuffet is not a "naive". He is rather a sage. In the Queensland Art Gal– lery collection there arc a few links with the new aatuisition. I am thinking of Picasso'• Femmt Au ParaJol, of David Allen's raw painting. Coming back to the exhibi– tion at Ray Hughes, which now comprises 11 paintings and 14 drawings in black-and-white: Lt Quoliditn, for example, has cellular components, contain– ing little figures; they stand in– securely and pathet,cally, like rag dolls or puppets; the white "cell" in the right bottom-cor– ner shows a pink face, whose nose and mouth arc drawn like 'the pictograph of a sailboat and whose eyes acem to look at tbc world with an eternal question mark. Is it to be a self-portnit? Just an intuition of mine, and it might be wrong. The drawings titled Land– sca,w and Flprts, and S/111 and Flprts, punue the same theme: little figures, atandina .either cnmeslled by labyrintbic lines, deliYUCII with compulaiw zeal, or they are 1et apinst a mouic of varied textures aad OYer and ewer scribbled plana, l)llllina in all directions. the lit• tJe f1111rea. which look 10 droll. sugeet a multitude of paycliic stata - rrom self-aatilfaction to u\ter bewildcnneat; aomo of them are stranded in a wilder• nca, .iD other drawings, they are tuanded on their own littfe isla,.. One certainly does act involwd with them. There ii rcuon to be gratclal for this o"erina of IOfflC of 1>11- buffet's latest work, in a ~to , gallery in Brisbane. . '\ • .. - Dr C UDE UNCERI' ·•· •