Corps de Dame--Château d'Étoupe
Artist/Maker
Jean Dubuffet
(French, 1901–1985)
Date1950
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 45 11/16 × 35 1/16 in. (116 × 89 cm)
Frame: 47 7/8 × 37 9/16 × 2 in. (121.6 × 95.3 × 5.1 cm)
Frame: 47 7/8 × 37 9/16 × 2 in. (121.6 × 95.3 × 5.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of Joseph and Enid Bissett
Object number1963.33
Status
Not on viewDubuffet was a significant force in postwar art, and perhaps one of the most anti-artistic in his disregard for conventional medium and imagery, especially the human body. Crucial to his art making was the separation of man and nature, and his opposition to classic, humanist culture. Many of his primitivist reference points overlap with the goals of the Abstract Expressionist painters. Dubuffet's cycle of paintings entitled Corps de Dame, produced in 1950-51, focused on the female nude – not necessarily as a thing of traditional beauty but as a dense matter, spread out across the canvas. In this work, the head, torso and limbs are flattened into the composition and set off from the background and canvas edge by a thick, dark brown ground. A variety of paint textures, brushwork, scraping and scoring, offer the only substance or presence to the altered form.
Exhibition History
An Exhibition of Paintings by Jean Dubuffet
- Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York (January 9, 1951 - February 3, 1951 )
Jean Dubuffet, 1943-1959: Retrospective Exhibition
- Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York (November 10, 1959 - December 12, 1959 )
Jean Dubuffet: The Bissett Collection
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (May 27, 1988 - September 18, 1988 )
Collecting the Vanguard: Art from 1900 to 1970
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 17, 2001 - June 2, 2002 )
Figure to Non-Figurative: The Evolution of Modern Art in Europe and North America, 1830-1950
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 23, 2002 - June 9, 2003 )
Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock-Ossorio-Dubuffet
- The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC (February 9, 2013 - June 13, 2013 )
- Parrish Art Museum, Southhampton, NY (July 21, 2013 - October 27, 2013 )
Judit Reigl: Body of Music
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (February 2, 2016 - May 29, 2016 )
Maidenform to Modernism: The Bissett Collection
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 15, 2017 - May 27, 2018 )
Beyond the Barricade
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (July 16, 2022 - December 23, 2022 )
Collections
- Modern & Contemporary
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1845
first half 19th century