
Jean Dubuffet
Brunette with Fleshy Face (Head of a Woman)
1951
On view
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Jean Dubuffet
December 1950
After witnessing the atrocities of World War II, Jean Dubuffet rejected the standards of beauty and perfection inherited from ancient Greek civilization. Inspired by the art of people with mental disorders, of the untutored, and of children, he painted figures in a crude and naïf style of thick impasto and coarse texture. Such emphatic matière associated him with the aesthetics of Art Informel. In this portrait, the often romanticized and glorified subject of a soldier is rendered anti-heroic. Lucien Geominne’s face is distorted, grotesque and pale; his skin appears to be disintegrating and decaying, raising the question: is he dead or alive?
Artist | Jean Dubuffet |
Original Title | Portrait du soldat Lucien Geominne |
Date | December 1950 |
Medium | Oil, sand, and pebbles on Masonite |
Dimensions | 64.8 x 61.6 cm |
Credit line | Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, Hannelore B. and Rudolph B. Schulhof Collection, bequest of Hannelore B. Schulhof, 2012 |
Accession | 2012.49 |
Collection | Schulhof Collection |
Type | Mixed media |
Copy caption
Jean Dubuffet
1951
On view
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