Jean Dubuffet Théâtres de Mémoire
The work of French painter and sculptor Jean Dubuffet is internationally recognized and praised in the constructs of 20th century art history on account of his resourceful utilization of unorthodox materials and his unique approach to the two-dimensional presentation of space. New York’s Pace Gallery is celebrating the prolific career of Jean Dubuffet in a show honoring his monumental body of work, entitled ‘Théâtres de Mémoire’. As the first exhibition of this remarkable series, in which Dubuffet began at the age of 74, to be presented in New York City since 1979, these monumental paintings, some of the largest Dubuffet ever produced, represent a new approach to the artist’s craft. Each vast canvas employs the technique of collage, composed of dozens of individual elements akin to earlier phases of Dubuffet’s prolific career, to create a final composition. Dubuffet titled the series after English historian Frances Yates’ book ‘The Art of Memory’, corresponding to the collection of individual memories on each unique canvas – images that crowed the conscious and unconscious mind – to create a larger, pictorial plane. A must see exhibition for art lovers looking to get lost for a transitory moment in the beauty of abstraction.