Barbe des combats (Combat Beard)

1959

Jean Dubuffet

Painter, French, 1901 - 1985

An upright, roughly rectangular, earth-brown and peachy-tan shape with ragged edges is at the center of this horizontal, abstract painting. Slowly we realize this central shape is a stylized face and long beard in the shape of a thick, capital letter T. Blocky ears straight across from rectangular eyes and a sketchily drawn nose create the wide crossbeam on the T. There is a peach smudge for the mouth and another band along the bottom of the painting, presumably representing skin on the chest. The rest of the central, dark area, a beard, is textured with sand and clay brown. The areas around the face and beard are streaked and daubed in with fog gray, pearl white, and pale tan. The artist signed and dated the work in the upper right corner, “J. Dubuffet 59.”
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of the Stephen Hahn Family Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 81 x 100 cm (31 7/8 x 39 3/8 in.)
    framed: 108 x 126.4 x 4.4 cm (42 1/2 x 49 3/4 x 1 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1995.95.2


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Stephen Hahn, Santa Barbara, California; gift (partial and promised) 1995 to NGA; gift completed 2012.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2001

  • Jean Dubuffet, Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2001, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2016

  • Jean Dubuffet: Anticultural Positions, Acquavella Contemporary Art, Inc., New York, 2016, pl. 44.

Inscriptions

upper right: J. Dubuffet / 59

Wikidata ID

Q20195216


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