Bowery Bum

Details

Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985)
Bowery Bum
signed and dated 'J. Dubuffet dicembre 51' (lower right)
watercolor and ink on paper
18 ½ x 13 1/8 in. (47 x 33.3 cm.)
Executed in 1951.

Provenance

Warner Leroy, New York
Galerie Beyeler, Basel
Pace Gallery, New York
Galerie Daniel Varenne, Paris
Private collection, 1985
Anon. sale; Sotheby's, New York, 14 May 2003, lot 158
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Literature

M. Loreau, Catalogue des travaux de Jean Dubuffet, Tables paysagees, paysages du mental, pierres philosophiques, fascicule VII, Lausanne, 1973, p. 209, no. 290 (illustrated).
A. Franzke, Dubuffet, New York, 1981, p. 14 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Basel, Kunstmuseum, Jean Dubuffet: Dessins, Aquarelles Collages, June-August 1970, no. 121.
University of Chicago, The David and Alfred Smart Gallery and St. Louis, Washington University Gallery of Art, Jean Dubuffet: Forty Years of his Art, October 1984-March 1985, p. 54, no. 29.

Lot Essay

"I feel that a work of art should be wreathed in surprise, that it should present an appearance that we have never seen before, that it should disorient you powerfully and transport you to an altogether unexpected world" (Jean Dubuffet, quoted in Nine unpublished notes dated 5 December 1960 ,Jean Dubuffet, Valerie da Costa, Fabrice Hergott, Barcelona, 2006, p.147).

Bowery Bum

Lot Essay

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