Brassaï - Dubuffet
28 Oct - 03 Dec 2011
Brassaï
Graffiti de la Série IV, Masques et Visages, 1935-1950
Gelatin silver print
25,1 x 31,9 x 3,5 cm
Graffiti de la Série IV, Masques et Visages, 1935-1950
Gelatin silver print
25,1 x 31,9 x 3,5 cm
BRASSAÏ - DUBUFFET
28 October - 3 December, 2011
The Karsten Greve Gallery is pleased to pay homage to the artists Brassaï and Jean Dubuffet in the context of an exhibition that reveals a reflection on a theme that connects them in a rather astonishing way - "Graffiti". Brassaï and Dubuffet approach the city as though it were a large prehistoric cave, as spectators of a wild and anarchic society stripped of any kind of aestheticism.
Equipped with his camera, Brassaï (1899 - 1984) captured ordinary traces of the inhabitants of Paris' streets beginning in the 1930's, thus discovering a hidden and unsuspected, though omnipresent expression. Dubuffet (1901-1985) incorporated the materiality and the texture of daily life on his canvasses, on paper and in lithography. In his opinion, the materiality does not show differences between human beings and their urban lifestyle. Human creatures are depicted, preferably in front of walls, detached from the space, stuck vertically "like posters, neither more nor less alive than the graffiti they resemble so much, they could be mistaken for it" (Noël Arnaud, 1961).
Setting off in search of real and imminent life, but through spontaneous and urban photos - the best known being his night shots - Brassaï was fascinated by the phenomenon of graffiti, which reflects an irresistible and existential need to inscribe one's presence in matter, thus immortalising the unconscious soul born of wounds and hope. In his figures, animals and in his shrunken, deformed and violently collapsed, wrinkled and cracked faces, Brassaϊ discovered a frightening magic through this primitive form of expression that questions the role of man, of nature, of death and love while at the same time inviting the eye and this encounter with the unknown.
Offering another perspective to the definition of "Graffiti", the exhibition will also reserve a large place for a lithographic series by Jean Dubuffet inspired by the poems "The Walls" by Eugène Guillevic that he worked on starting in January 1945. Dubuffet often sought to create a dialogue between his works and literature. The wall, an element that is already present in his work, not only takes on importance at the figurative and textual levels, but is also manifest technically in the form of direct engravings on a solid lithographic stone that becomes a wall. Scraped, scratched and slashed, the wall seems to him ”like a book, an ample book, on which one can write and read". (Jean Dubuffet to A. Pieyre de Mandiargues, 1957).
Two major post war artists are herein being featured: Brassaï, a less known member, though an important one, of the Surrealist movement, and Dubuffet, who was at the origins of Art Brut. The exhibition was opened in the Galerie Karsten Greve Paris in April 2011 and revealed for the first time a reflection on the dialog between Brassaϊ and Dubuffet on Graffiti. The project was realised with the support of the Fondation Dubuffet.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue with texts by Brassaϊ himself and Sophie Webel, Fondation Dubuffet, in English, French and German.
28 October - 3 December, 2011
The Karsten Greve Gallery is pleased to pay homage to the artists Brassaï and Jean Dubuffet in the context of an exhibition that reveals a reflection on a theme that connects them in a rather astonishing way - "Graffiti". Brassaï and Dubuffet approach the city as though it were a large prehistoric cave, as spectators of a wild and anarchic society stripped of any kind of aestheticism.
Equipped with his camera, Brassaï (1899 - 1984) captured ordinary traces of the inhabitants of Paris' streets beginning in the 1930's, thus discovering a hidden and unsuspected, though omnipresent expression. Dubuffet (1901-1985) incorporated the materiality and the texture of daily life on his canvasses, on paper and in lithography. In his opinion, the materiality does not show differences between human beings and their urban lifestyle. Human creatures are depicted, preferably in front of walls, detached from the space, stuck vertically "like posters, neither more nor less alive than the graffiti they resemble so much, they could be mistaken for it" (Noël Arnaud, 1961).
Setting off in search of real and imminent life, but through spontaneous and urban photos - the best known being his night shots - Brassaï was fascinated by the phenomenon of graffiti, which reflects an irresistible and existential need to inscribe one's presence in matter, thus immortalising the unconscious soul born of wounds and hope. In his figures, animals and in his shrunken, deformed and violently collapsed, wrinkled and cracked faces, Brassaϊ discovered a frightening magic through this primitive form of expression that questions the role of man, of nature, of death and love while at the same time inviting the eye and this encounter with the unknown.
Offering another perspective to the definition of "Graffiti", the exhibition will also reserve a large place for a lithographic series by Jean Dubuffet inspired by the poems "The Walls" by Eugène Guillevic that he worked on starting in January 1945. Dubuffet often sought to create a dialogue between his works and literature. The wall, an element that is already present in his work, not only takes on importance at the figurative and textual levels, but is also manifest technically in the form of direct engravings on a solid lithographic stone that becomes a wall. Scraped, scratched and slashed, the wall seems to him ”like a book, an ample book, on which one can write and read". (Jean Dubuffet to A. Pieyre de Mandiargues, 1957).
Two major post war artists are herein being featured: Brassaï, a less known member, though an important one, of the Surrealist movement, and Dubuffet, who was at the origins of Art Brut. The exhibition was opened in the Galerie Karsten Greve Paris in April 2011 and revealed for the first time a reflection on the dialog between Brassaϊ and Dubuffet on Graffiti. The project was realised with the support of the Fondation Dubuffet.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue with texts by Brassaϊ himself and Sophie Webel, Fondation Dubuffet, in English, French and German.