[Audio Guide]
A face occupies almost the entirety of the picture surface; the eyes, nose, and mouth painted like a scrawl. This is an appropriately unsophisticated work by Dubuf fet, whose own works were landmarks in “Art Brut (raw art)”, the name he gave to art created by individuals without a formal art education, such as children or psychiatric patients. If one looks closely, we can see that the painting surface of compressed wood chips is marked with violent scratch marks. This has been painted with pigments and then wiped, suggesting an exposed shoreline or parched earth onto which an “expression” has been imprinted. The Second World War laid bare the fragility of human existence. Amid these traumatic circumstances, the human face painted by Dubuffet contains the strength of the irrepressible human existence, which transcends a single life to remain over several generations.
