Jean Dubuffet: Prints & Multiples

Jean Dubuffet: Prints & Multiples will open on May 24, 2018, and continue through July 13, 2018, at Pace Prints, 521 West 26th Street, 4th floor.


Jean Dubuffet’s editions were always closely related to his paintings and sculptures. They reflect the various manifestations of his iconography, including his L’Hourloupe and Théâtre de Memoire periods.   Intrigued with process, Dubuffet was an incredible innovator.  This exhibition highlights his inventive application of media, including traditional screenprinting techniques and groundbreaking applications of the medium on paper, silk, and canvas.  His dedication to printmaking pushed the medium to become a vital playground for artistic creativity. Highlights of the exhibition include:


Présences Fugaces, 1973 ∙ This suite of six screenprints was the first Dubuffet print project that Pace Editions published. The images are very straight-forward L’Hourloupe portraits with invented titles, characterized by his distinctive interlocking forms.  As with all Dubuffet prints, they were printed in Paris under Dubuffet’s supervision.


Faits Mémorables, 1978 ∙ Dubuffet employed a matrix of individual, overlapping, and screened figures and colorful, abstract patterns as the first step in the printing process. After each individual printed element was added to the matrix, the entire matrix was printed. Through this unique double screenprinting process, these prints take on the appearance of collage, and closely resemble his Théâtre de Memoire paintings.  The paintings done in this period are also currently on view at Pace Gallery.


Site de Mémoire III, 1979 ∙ One of the most unusual and inventive projects that Dubuffet created for Pace Editions was a monumental screen printed edition on canvas.  Initially, Dubuffet created a montage of black and white drawings that were both figurative and abstract. These were enlarged and screen-printed on canvas.  The resulting image directly relates to his iconic black and white drawings.  


Parcours,1981 ∙ The idea of creating a scroll generated from Dubuffet’s awareness of a scroll on silk by Joan Miró.  In conceptualizing his scroll, Dubuffet decided to use twelve of his horizontal black and white drawings, and screenprinted them on silk. Attached to a dowel on each end, the scroll is encased in a wooden box with a silkscreened image on its hinged cover. The scroll, when unrolled, measures twenty feet.


The exhibition will also include several other of Dubuffet’s multicolored L’Hourloupe screenprint editions and multiples that were created during these years 


The exhibition is concurrent with Jean Dubuffet: Théâtres de Mémoire at Pace Gallery, 510 West 25th Street, on view May 18—June 29, 2018.