This weekend’s your last chance to catch Jean Dubuffet: Brutal Beauty in the Barbican Gallery in London. 

It is the first major UK exhibition of French artist  Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985) in over 50 years. One of the most provocative voices in postwar modern art, Dubuffet rebelled against conventional ideas of beauty, hoping to capture the poetry of everyday life in a gritty, more authentic way. Drawn from international public and private collections, Brutal Beauty brings together more than 150 works: from early portraits, lithographs, and fantastical statues to enamel paintings, butterfly assemblages, and giant colorful canvases. 

Spanning four decades in the studio, Brutal Beauty highlights Dubuffet’s endless experimentation with tools and materials, as he blended paint with shards of glass, coal dust, pebbles, slithers of string and gravel. Shown alongside his work are two dedicated rooms from Dubuffet’s collection of Art Brut, acquired throughout his life – shedding light on artists such as Aloïse Corbaz, Fleury-Joseph Crépin, Gaston Duf, and Laure Pigeon, who profoundly inspired his approach to the making and understanding of art.

Despite their 60-year age-gap, Dubuffet and Jean-Michel Basquiat were more intellectual companions than artistic parent and child. In this short film, directed by Sophia Loren Heriveaux (Goldfin Films), we explore the striking parallels between the life and works of Dubuffet and Basquiat. We’ll never know if the two artists ever actually met but seeing their work stand up alongside one another’s, despite a 60-year age gap, is a testament to Basquiat’s prodigious talents and Dubuffet’s relentless invention.

https://www.barbican.org.uk/

 

PLUS if you cannot get to The Barbican this weekend : here is The Curator Tour