Jean Dubuffet

Galerie Beyeler, Basel
Galleria Levi, Milan
Sale: Sotheby's New York, Contemporary Art, 14 May 1998, Lot 28
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Jean Dubuffet, 1968, no. 60, illustrated in colour
London, Waddington Galleries, Jean Dubuffet, 1972, p. 22, no. 31, illustrated
Milan, Galleria Levi, Dubuffet, L'Hourloupe, 1972, no. 21, illustrated in colour

Max Loreau, Catalogue des travaux de Jean Dubuffet: Sculptures Peintes, fascicule XXIII, Lausanne 1972, p. 24, no. 9, illustrated
Andreas Franzke, Jean Dubuffet, Basel 1975, p. 119, no. 85, illustrated
Renato Barilli, Il Ciclo dell'Hourloupe, Milan 1975, p. 58, no. 75, illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is deeper and richer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is very minor wear to the extreme tip of the top left corner, the centre of the bottom edge and to the upper right edge. Close inspection reveals very minor spots of wear to the edges of the sculpted relief, particularly towards the centre of the top edge and towards the centre of the left edge. There is very minor and faint discolouration at intervals in the white areas. No restoration is apparent under ultra violet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Created in the summer of 1966, Logos I charts a decisive step in Jean Dubuffet's renowned cycle of works, which he titled L'Hourloupe. Always seeking to extend the parameters of art, in the mid-1960s Dubuffet started to transfer his two-dimensional paintings into sculptures. Initially using polystyrene, a material which, despite its inherent fragility, he favoured for the ease with which it could be sculpted, in 1966 Dubuffet settled on a new process of casting the polystyrene originals in polyester to lend them greater durability. Logos I is one of the first such works.

The style of the L'Hourloupe paintings and sculptures was inspired by doodles that Dubuffet made with a ballpoint pen while talking on the telephone in July 1962. The jigsaw-like style which evolved was to occupy the artist for the next decade. Dubuffet spoke about the origin of the L'Hourloupe series: "The works originating in this cycle are in the form of sinuous graphisms responding with immediacy to spontaneous and, so to speak, uncontrolled impulses of the hand which traces them. With these graphisms, imprecise, fugitive and ambiguous figures take shape. Their movement sets off in the observer's mind a hyper-activation of the visionary faculty. In these interlacings all kinds of objects form and dissolve as the eyes scan the surface, intimating the transitory and the permanent, the real and the fallacious. The result (at least, this is the way it works for me) is an awareness of the illusory character of the world which we think of as real, and to which we give the name of the real world. Thus, as you can see, a philosophic humour presides over the works of the Hourloupe cycle, introducing a doubt about the true materiality of the everyday world. It too may be only a mental construct. (Jean Dubuffet, 'Remarks on the unveiling of The Group of Four Trees' in Exhibition Catalogue, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Jean Dubuffet, 1973, pp. 35-36).