Deploiement 1959

This is a print by Jean Dubuffet, and right away I am drawn to the way he lets the process be so visible. It's almost entirely about texture, a gritty, granular surface with an earthy palette of browns and grays. Dubuffet wasn’t trying to hide the hand, but instead put it right there on the surface. The marks feel almost accidental, like he’s embracing chance and letting the materials do their thing. Look closely, and you can see the variations in tone, the subtle shifts from dark to light that give the piece a sense of depth. There's a horizontal scratch there in the center, a single line that cuts across the textured field which invites you to consider the layers of activity. I see echoes of Antoni Tàpies in Dubuffet’s raw, tactile surfaces and this reminds me that art is one big conversation, an ongoing exchange of ideas and techniques, where artists build on what came before while pushing things in new directions.