As the champion of "Art Brut," the artist Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) is remembered foremost as a painter. Yet his creative instinct extended far beyond the parameters of paint. Later in his life, in 1965, his interest in architecture was sparked by a commission for two large-scale paintings for the University of Nanterre in Paris. Although he ultimately abandoned that project, he became intrigued by the idea of producing large works in a more enduring format, capable of withstanding the elements. He experimented with different media in search of a solution, producing works in ceramic, concrete, and eventually plastic resin. 
The large size and relief surface of his 1967 Mur Bleu (Blue Wall) catapulted his painting into the third dimension in a big way. Many commissions followed, and today Dubuffet's massive architectural forms grace several cities across the globe. The artist did not intend for these structures to be mere supports for his paintings; he meant for them to give his work architectural space. His efforts in this area earned him the medal of the American Institute of Architects in 1982. These stunningly inventive and playful works stand as a testament to Dubuffet's desire to expand his practice through new materials and techniques—and even into new dimensions. Dubuffet as Architect is the first published account of this little-known aspect of this artist's work.

Dubuffet as Architect

Arts & Photography

Abadie, Daniel

Individual Artists

Editions Hazan, Paris

This illustrated collection of essays on Cocteau's relationship to theatre, ballet, music, film, visual art, and literature provides a portrait of the man, the artist and twentieth-century French culture

Jean Cocteau and the French Scene

Biographies & Memoirs

Abbeville Press

Alechinsky: Les ateliers du Midi

CIXOUS, Hélène

Alechinsky, Pierre

Gallimard]

Francois-Xavier and Claude Lalanne, a French husband-and-wife team of sculptors, have worked side by side for more than half a century. Their art is complementary, and both draw from the humor and spontaneity of surrealism while maintaining their individuality. Drawing from the grand tradition of French animaliers like Barye and Pompon, Francois-Xavier creates opulent and utilitarian pieces such as the whimsical rhinoceros desk, a "Tin of Sardines" bed, and his famous sheep chairs. Claude’s intimate and spontaneous universe ranges from nature-inspired jewelry and furniture to monumental sculpture. Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent, and Salvador Dali have all commissioned work from Claude—her electroplated molds of the human body for Saint Laurent are icons of twentieth-century art and fashion. This is the most complete monograph to be published on the Lalannes, whose work is featured in major museums and galleries around the world. Produced in collaboration with the artists, and drawing from their extensive archives, it fully documents and illustrates their work—from pieces signed collaboratively to their individual creations—and traces their inspirations from their Parisian neighbor Brancusi, to their early years as artists, via surrealism and the nouveaux réalistes from whom they quickly distinguished themselves, to their current place as the most original artists of the contemporary art scene.

Lalanne(s)

Flammarion

As the champion of "Art Brut," the artist Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) is remembered foremost as a painter. Yet his creative instinct extended far beyond the parameters of paint. Later in his life, in 1965, his interest in architecture was sparked by a commission for two large-scale paintings for the University of Nanterre in Paris. Although he ultimately abandoned that project, he became intrigued by the idea of producing large works in a more enduring format, capable of withstanding the elements. He experimented with different media in search of a solution, producing works in ceramic, concrete, and eventually plastic resin. The large size and relief surface of his 1967 Mur Bleu (Blue Wall) catapulted his painting into the third dimension in a big way. Many commissions followed, and today Dubuffet's massive architectural forms grace several cities across the globe. The artist did not intend for these structures to be mere supports for his paintings; he meant for them to give his work architectural space. His efforts in this area earned him the medal of the American Institute of Architects in 1982. These stunningly inventive and playful works stand as a testament to Dubuffet's desire to expand his practice through new materials and techniques—and even into new dimensions. Dubuffet as Architect is the first published account of this little-known aspect of this artist's work.

Dubuffet Architect

Yale University Press

Book Nine Large monograph published on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Roger Bissiere and of the major retrospective organized by the Museum of the City of Paris. Text is in French. A wealth of colorful images on glossy paper. The book was presented in a cardboard slipcase and with a dust jacket.

Bissiere les silences

History & Criticism

IDES CALENDES

Georges pompidou et la modernite: - GALERIE NATIONALE DU JEU DE PAUME (CATALOGUES DU M.N.A.M)

CENTRE POMPIDOU

Jean Dubuffet (1901-85) was a big deal to an adolescent art lover in Chicago in the '70s. His monumental black-and-white civic sculptures were the epitome of bland buoyancy, a kind of European Pop--old master gold standard. His championing of art brut and children's art, not to mention his own funky dirt-, gravel-, and cement-filled canvases, looked to be the very lodestars of the local Hairy Whos' obsessions. Chicago collectors of Picasso and Ivan Albright took to Dubuffet like one of their own, just as their forebears had embraced French Impressionism, to which Dubuffet's work provided many not-so-subtle links. That air of crusty glamour; that pneumatic, up-with-nature thing; that bold reinvention of the "ugly" female nude, the war-torn landscape, and the hydrocephalic male portrait of literary genius--all this made Dubuffet a living ancestor figure for artists and critics beginning to question the hegemony of the New York School and looking to Europe for alternatives.

Jean dubuffet

Jean dubuffet (l'exposition)

One of the most charming and beloved of the surrealists, René Magritte took a light, witty paintbrush and created a world both familiar and not--but always recognizable in our dreams. His plays on semiotics, identity, the idea of woman, the possibilities inherent in objects, and the idea that everything was not necessarily what it seemed--or what it was supposed to be--are celebrated here in an exceptionally charming limited edition. The Blue Box is done up like a handsome book, complete with a leather-bound spine and a bas-relief frontispiece that plays the painting-of-a window-within-a-window trick. Inside is a stash of goodies, each arranged in a separate portfolio. The first contains three original etchings by Magritte, numbered and signed and stamped by the Magritte estate; next is a five-piece full-size reproduction on canvas of The Eternally Obvious, a woman split into as many parts; and last are eight reproductions each of the gouaches The Pig's Beer and Horse Preserve, printed on adhesive paper and meant to be stuck on to bottles just like the originals were. Also included is the hardback edition of Magritte, the catalogue for the Jeu de Paume exhibit (published by D.A.P. in spring 2003). Edited by Daniel Abadie.~Essays by Renilde Hammacher, Michel Butor, Patrick Roegiers, Jean Roudaut, Bernard Noël and Jean-Michel Goutier. Slipcased, 12 x 14.5 in./304 pgs / 291 color 70 BW0 duotone 12 3 B&W etchings, 5 canvas, 4 adhesive color prints~ Item D20365

Magritte: The Blue Box: Limited Edition

Magritte, René

GINGKO PRESS INC^

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