Jean Dubuffet Enter a
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a gallery.
Choose a mood and the room itself answers — the light cools or warms, the air changes pace, and only the works that carry that feeling step forward from the dark. Everything else recedes into shadow.
Jean Dubuffet
Early Life, Family and Training Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet was born on July 31, 1901, in Le Havre, France. He was raised within the comfortable confines of the wealthy bourgeoisie, the son of wholesale wine merchants. This stable, prosperous upbringing provided a backdrop of material security that stood in quiet contrast to the raw, unrefined impulses that would later define his creative output. His early years in Le Havre were shape
d by this domestic stability before the pull of the capital drew him toward a different kind of existence. In 1918, Dubuffet moved to Paris to pursue formal training at the Académie Julian. It was an environment defined by the rigid structures of academic tradition, a setting designed to instill the polished standards of the era. However, the formal constraints of the institution did not sit well with him. After only six months, he ch…