Graces tenebreuses 1959

Curator: This piece, titled "Graces tenebreuses," is a 1959 etching by Jean Dubuffet, part of his exploration into Art Informel and what some call "matter painting." It's really a captivating print to consider. Editor: "Captivating" is one word. My immediate reaction is, frankly, gloom. A landscape of urban decay maybe? The grayscale just swallows any hint of light, doesn't it? It's almost oppressive. Curator: I can see that, the shades certainly are brooding. But for Dubuffet, the gloom isn’t an end in itself. He's after something raw, something primal. He saw beauty, a dark kind of grace, in the discarded, the rough. This aesthetic certainly breaks with conventions. Editor: And subverts the myth of the "three graces", idealized figures, benevolent deities that represented beauty, charm, and joy. Interesting... but is this deconstruction truly "beautiful?" Curator: The beauty emerges from the materiality, for me, anyway. The texture—the way the etching bites into the paper —creates a topography. The process itself feels as important as any representational content, it’s about unveiling what others ignore. It is not conventional beauty by any means! Editor: I think there’s something potent here, too, regarding the post-war anxiety embedded in works such as these, perhaps mirroring the unsettling and precarious conditions of human existence in the nuclear age. Art Informel was, after all, developed as a reaction to abstract forms... it has some significance that's clearly there. Curator: Precisely! It feels intensely physical. Dubuffet wanted to push back against a society that idealized perfection. He insisted that beauty resided in the grit, the scars, the unpredictable textures of the real. He sought the unconventional in every aspect, really. Editor: And I think he achieved that! Considering all, and understanding better the context of that time, and of this artistic expression, I see that "Graces tenebreuses" offers us a very valid space for thoughtful consideration. It certainly resonates through decades. Curator: Absolutely, there's a lot to unpack with his view of the human condition, a beautiful unease, let's call it that. It surely has made its impact in contemporary arts and theory!