Questions & Answers
Our trusted network of 1stDibs sellers answer common questions
What inspired Jean Dubuffet?
1 Answer

Jean Dubuffet, a French painter, sculptor and printmaker was greatly inspired by the art of children and the mentally ill. He developed art brut, which is meant to be full of vitality and expression and not restrained by academics. Shop a selection of Jean Dubuffet pieces from some of the world’s top art dealers on 1stDibs.
1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
Related Questions
- What was Jean Muir famous for?1 Answer
- What is Versace Jeans Couture?1 Answer
- Do Balmain jeans stretch?1 Answer
- What size is 28 in jeans?1 Answer
- What are regular-fit jeans?1 Answer
Shop for Jean Dubuffet Art on 1stDibs
Jean Dubuffet - Le Hochet - Original Screenprint
By Jean Dubuffet
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Jean Dubuffet
Banque de L'Hourloupe
Original Card with a title card
Original edition of 350 numbered sets with 30 hors commerce
Dimensions: 25 x 16 cm
Screen printed by Kelpra Studios, London Editions Alecto, London 1967
Jean Dubuffet (1901 - 1985)
Jean Dubuffet was born on July 31, 1901, in Le Havre, France. He attended art classes in his youth and in 1918 moved to Paris to study at the Académie Julian, which he left after six months. During this time, Dubuffet met Raoul Dufy, Max Jacob, Fernand Léger, and Suzanne Valadon and became fascinated with Hans Prinzhorn's book on psychopathic art. He traveled to Italy in 1923 and South America in 1924. Then Dubuffet gave up painting for about ten years, working as an industrial draftsman and later in the family wine business. He committed himself to becoming an artist in 1942.
Dubuffet's first solo exhibition was held at the Galerie René Drouin, Paris, in 1944; the Pierre Matisse Gallery gave him his first solo show in New York in 1947. During the 1940s, the artist associated with André Breton, Georges Limbour, Jean Paulhan, and Charles Ratton...
Category
1960s Abstract Impressionist Abstract Prints
Materials
Screen
The Superintendent - Urban Street French Pop Art
By Jean Dubuffet
Located in London, GB
This screenprint is hand signed in pencil by the artist with his initials 'JD' (Jean Dubuffet) in the lower right corner.
The work is also numbered in pencil 97 from the edition of ...
Category
1970s Street Art Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen
Jean Dubuffet Artist Proof Signed Lithograph "Sophisticated Lady"
By Jean Dubuffet
Located in Detroit, MI
SALE ONE WEEK ONLY
"Sophisticated Lady", a lithograph, is an exemplary work indicative of DuBuffet's early work and style. It is a playful and iron...
Category
1940s Expressionist Portrait Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Autograph Letter by Jean Dubuffet - 1957
By Jean Dubuffet
Located in Roma, IT
This is a Autograph Letter Signed by Jean Dubuffet and addressed to Nesto Jacometti.
Vence, November 28th, 1957. One page, single-sided. On watermarked paper. In French. excellent c...
Category
1930s More Art
Materials
Paper, Ink
1973 original poster by Jean Dubuffet Coucou Bazar at the Grand Palais in Paris
By Jean Dubuffet
Located in PARIS, FR
In 1973, Jean Dubuffet, a pioneer of the Art Brut movement, created an iconic poster to promote his interactive and innovative performance art piece, Coucou Bazar, at the Grand Palai...
Category
1970s Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper, Lithograph
Jean Dubuffet Lithograph Art Brut "I. Traces grotesques"
By Jean Dubuffet
Located in Detroit, MI
SALE ONE WEEK ONLY
"I. Traces grotesques" is an Artist’s Proof Lithograph. “Proofs” are either pulled or printed, and the artist has the option to work out the color and quality issues as they come out of the process. The only real difference between the two is the restricted quantity of prints bearing the AP designation and not the quality of the print. This lithograph is signed and titled by the artist, Jean Dubuffet, which indicates his complete satisfaction with the print. It is from 1958 and a perfect example of his style, “Art Brut.” His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced what is called “low art”, art by non-academically trained artists. It is sometimes referred to as “outsider art.”
He did study briefly at the Academie Julian, Paris, but eventually followed his own aesthetics which eschewed traditional standard of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a more authentic and humanistic approach to image-making. This lithograph expresses the beauty he found in the meandering spontaneous black line.
Jean Dubuffet began painting at the age of seventeen and studied briefly at the Academie Julian, Paris. He painted off and on for the next 20 years. It was not until 1942 in the midst of WWII in France that he began the work which has distinguished him as an outstanding innovator in postwar Europe. It is said of his work that “he looked to the margins of the everyday – the art of prisoners, psychics, the uneducated, and the institutionalized – to liberate his own creativity and coining the term ‘Art Brut’.” Art Brut is a French term that translates as ‘raw art’, to describe art such as graffiti or naïve art which is made outside the academic tradition of fine art. His paintings from the early forties in brightly colored oils were soon followed by works in which he employed such unorthodox materials as cement, plaster, tar and asphalt-scraped, craved and cut and drawn upon with a rudimentary, spontaneous line.
Dubuffet worked in France and exhibited from the early forties on. He was included in the 1946 Pierre Matisse...
Category
1950s Abstract Abstract Prints
Materials
Lithograph


