Black Earth 1955

Jean Dubuffet made this 'Black Earth' when? Well, we don't know exactly! But looking at it, I reckon that he's trying to get at something elemental with all those earthy tones. The surface has a beautiful grittiness. It's not about being slick or showing off perfect technique. Instead, it feels like he’s digging into the material, getting his hands dirty. The figures are so raw, they’re like ghostly apparitions emerging from the soil! The way Dubuffet uses texture and the stark contrast of light and dark reminds me of cave paintings – it has that primal, almost childlike quality. That weird figure on the right, crouched down? It's both scary and strangely vulnerable. This takes me back to some of the early modernists like Paul Klee, who were similarly obsessed with channeling the art of children and the so-called ‘primitive’. It’s all about stripping things back to their essence. Art isn't about answers, it's about questions.