Jean Dubuffet Quotes about Art

Jean Dubuffet was a famous 20th century painter and sculptor. He’s known for his raw and expressive outsider art and for promoting the Art Brut movement. He was a prolific artist who produced paintings, drawings, collages, sculpture, outdoor monuments and prints. Famous Jean Dubuffet paintings include “Il flûte sur la bosse”, “La belle encornée”, “Les commentaires”, “Le Strabique” and “Autobus Gare Montparnasse”.

Mini biography: Born Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet on the 31st of July, 1901 in Le Havre, France. He was married to Paulette Bret from 1925 to 1933. Jean Dubuffet died on the 12th of May, 1985 in Paris, France. Dubuffet was 83 years old when he passed away. The artist died of emphysema.

Check out these books on Jean Dubuffet: “Jean Dubuffet: Metamorphoses of Landscape“, “Dubuffet and the City: People, Place and Urban Space“, and “Jean Dubuffet: Anticultural Positions“.

Famous Jean Dubuffet Art Quotes

For me, insanity is super sanity. The normal is psychotic. Normal means lack of imagination, lack of creativity. Jean Dubuffet

The more banal a thing may be, the better it suits me. Jean Dubuffet

Personally, I believe very much in values of savagery. I mean: instinct, passion, mood, violence, madness. Jean Dubuffet

In my opinion each generation should dump the art of the preceding generations on the scrap heap and produce their own art, which will likewise be dumped by the following generation. Jean Dubuffet

There is no art without intoxication. But I mean a mad intoxication! Let reason teeter! Delirium! The highest degree of delirium! Plunged in burning dementia! Art is the most enrapturing orgy within man’s reach.. Art must make you laugh a little and make you a little afraid. Anything as long as it doesn’t bore. Jean Dubuffet

Luckily I do not consider myself exceptional in any way. In my paintings, I wish to recover the vision of an average and ordinary man. Jean Dubuffet

We participate in an artistic process which is completely pure, raw, entirely reinvented in all of its phases by the artist, from his impulses alone. Therefore, of an art which manifests itself through the function of invention only, and not those, constant in cultural art, of chameleon and monkey. Jean Dubuffet

We intend with these works executed by those unscathed by artistic culture, in which, the mimesis has little role in the way that the artist draws everything (subject, choice of material, the creative process, ways of expressing an idea, rhythms, etc) from their own depths and, unlike intellectuals, not from the conventions of classical or fashionable art. Jean Dubuffet

What I expect from any work of art is that it surprises me, that it violates my customary valuations of things and offers me other, unexpected ones. Jean Dubuffet

I take hardly any interest in the work of other painters. I rarely visit art galleries. It is very possible that art based on the constant use of references to earlier works could be very legitimate – in my own work I use nothing of the kind. Jean Dubuffet

It seemed to me that by depersonalizing my models, and approaching them from the very general perspective of the human figure, I helped to release, for the user of my painting, different mechanisms of imagination or interest which would greatly increase the power of the likeness. Jean Dubuffet

The creators of Art Brut draw their themes, ideas and means of expression from their “own resources,” from their “impulses and humors, without referring to the usual means, without any consideration for the accepted conventions. Jean Dubuffet

Art doesn’t go to sleep in the bed made for it. It would sooner run away than say its own name: what it likes is to be incognito. Its best moments are when it forgets what its own name is. Jean Dubuffet

More on French Artist Jean Dubuffet

How has Jean Dubuffet influenced your art making? He’s definitely one of my top ten artists of all time. I like his raw and expressive earthy colored paintings more than his primary colored works and monumental sculpture but I do like those too. Let us know what you think about Dubuffet in the comments below.

For more on the famous French artist here’s three excellent Jean Dubuffet books: “Jean Dubuffet: Metamorphoses of Landscape“, “Dubuffet and the City: People, Place and Urban Space“, and “Jean Dubuffet: Anticultural Positions“.