This collage and felt-tip pen on paper, dated 1972, is dedicated to Jacques Robine, an architect and expert at the Paris Court. The work has remained in the Robine family until today.
Between 1973 and 1983, a legal battle raged between Jean Dubuffet and the car manufacturer Renault. The reason: a commission Renault had given to Jean Dubuffet for Le Salon d’été, a 1,800 m² garden-sculpture intended for the company’s headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt. But only a year after construction began, Renault abandoned the project. Why? The company cited cost overruns, modifications made by the artist, and above all a waterproofing problem with the slab on which the garden-sculpture was being built-an issue Renault claimed was caused by the artist’s miscalculations.
This is where Jacques Robine stepped in. As an architect and expert, he determined that Dubuffet’s work, begun a year earlier, had not damaged the slab. His findings refuted Renault’s arguments holding the artist responsible for structural issues caused by the sculpture. To thank him, Jean Dubuffet gave him this collage.
The work stands as a remarkable testimony to the support Jacques Robine gave to Dubuffet.
Couple de figures belongs to a pivotal period in Jean Dubuffet’s artistic output. The year 1972 marked the height of his Hourloupe cycle, while also ushering in the development of the Coucou Bazar. The Hourloupe cycle began in 1962 with spontaneous sketches made by the artist while on the phone. Using a black ballpoint pen, Dubuffet drew abstract shapes, later filling them in with red and blue hatching. These ghostlike figures gradually took on form and character.
In Couple de figures, we find the characteristic clusters of black geometric shapes typical of this body of work. These clusters gradually form figures-soon becoming characters. Rather than drawing them, Jean Dubuffet opted for collage to suggest mobility. These movable figures, known as “praticables” (cut-out modules), would go on to form a ballet of paintings and sculptures in Coucou Bazar, created in 1973.
This work will be offered for sale in the next edition of Les Francs-Tireurs de l’Art: Bruts, Naïfs, Singuliers and other Outsiders , to be held in September 2025.
We are currently seeking works by artists such as Adolf Wölfli, Aloïse Corbaz, Augustin Lesage, Armand Avril, A.C.M., Scottie Wilson, Madge Gill, Jean Rustin, Michel Macréau, Aristide Caillaud, Jean Dubuffet, Gaston Chaissac, André Bauchant, Camille Bombois, Anselme Boix-Vives, Jean Ève, Séraphine de Senlis, Le Douanier Rousseau, Grandma Moses…
CONTACTS
