Fragile installation de l'ombre 1958

This is an atmospheric print by Jean Dubuffet from 1958. Looking at the muddy yellows and browns and the scraping marks all over the surface, I can really imagine Dubuffet working on this plate, pushing the ink around, wiping it away, adding more, then scratching back into it. You get the sense that he’s not just depicting something, he’s actually building it up from nothing, like making earth itself. I wonder if he ever felt like he was wrestling with the materials? Was it a struggle to get the image to emerge, or did it flow naturally? I’ve certainly had those days in the studio where the paint seems to have a mind of its own! It reminds me of some of the abstract expressionists like Antoni Tàpies who were also interested in texture and the raw physicality of paint. Artists are always riffing off one another, an ongoing conversation. Dubuffet’s mark-making feels so personal, like a direct extension of his hand and his thoughts, yet also part of this bigger dialogue about what painting can be. For me, it is a kind of map that invites us to wander and get lost.