Lot n° 143
Estimation :
60000 - 90000
EUR
DUBUFFET Jean. KNIGHT OF HUNGER AND THIRST (BOWERY), 1951. - Lot 143
DUBUFFET Jean. KNIGHT OF HUNGER AND THIRST (BOWERY), 1951.
Gouache and ink on paper.
Signed and dated lower right.
475 x 335 mm.
During his first stay in New York, from November 1951 to April 1952, Jean Dubuffet occupied an adjoining studio on Bowery Street, an impoverished street
the sidewalks of which were crowded with beggars, drunks and vagrants. As soon as he arrived, the painter paid tribute to them in a series of drawings, gouaches and watercolors: Les Clochards de Bowery (Bowery Bums), whose deformed bodies entangled in ink and, here, gouache seem to respond to the Corps des dames cycle initiated two years earlier.
While the works produced by Jean Dubuffet during his American sojourn
(Landscapes, Terres, etc.) seem in no way influenced by their environment, and are a continuation of the research begun in Paris, only this series of figures bears witness to the painter's view of the city.
In a 1965 letter to Ilhan Mimaroglu, who had just composed a piece of
an experimental piece of electronic music inspired by this series, Jean
Dubuffet evokes the memory of this New York setting: "I am astonished and very touched
that you have so perfectly grasped the spirit that presides over those of my works
works to which belong my drawings made in New York in 1952 about the
bums on the Bowery (at the time, I worked in a studio very close to the Bowery
the Bowery and had these 'bums' constantly in front of me) and that you have so perfectly captured this spirit in your music."
Sophie Duplaix, Sophie Webel and Andreas Wagner, Jean Dubuffet Expériences
musical, Fondation Dubuffet, 2006, p.111.
Several Bowery Bums are held in the most prestigious public collections:
- Bum du Bowery (Bowery Tramp), watercolor and India ink, MNAM/Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
Center Georges Pompidou, Paris, inv. AM 1989-298, donated by Daniel Cardier.
- Bowery Bum, watercolor and Indian ink, Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris,
inv. 41510, donated by Jean Dubuffet.
- Bowery Bum, Indian ink, Moma, New-York, inv. 58.1978.
Provenance :
Jacqueline and Bernard Gheerbrant Collection (acquired directly from the artist).
By descent to the current owner.
Bibliography: Max Loreau, Tables paysagées, Paysages du mental, Pierres philosophiques, Catalogue des travaux de Jean Dubuffet, fascicule VII, n°113 (reproduced).
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