PERSONNAGE (BUSTE) M. 406 is a collage created by Jean DUBUFFET in 1967, highly representative of the artist's Hourloupe period.
It depicts a stylized silhouette, seen in profile, with contours outlined in thick black lines that delineate abstract and organic shapes. The figure, which is quite elongated and compact, appears to be composed of a superimposition of free forms, almost like a puzzle, with areas filled with blue or red colors and striped patterns alternating between shades.
The background, executed in gouache, is a uniform light blue that makes the central figure stand out. The overall effect is both naive and dynamic, characteristic of DUBUFFET's style, which often explores deliberate simplicity and an aesthetic close to Art Brut. The composition plays on the juxtaposition of subtle shapes and textures, evoking both a human figure and a richly detailed abstraction.
This work is dedicated to a friend of DUBUFFET's, the writer Ludovic MASSÉ.

Jean DUBUFFET and L’Hourloupe

In July 1962, while answering the phone, Jean DUBUFFET absentmindedly ran his red ballpoint pen over small pieces of paper. These exercises resulted in semi-automatic drawings that he crossed out with red and blue lines.

The years 1962 and 1963 marked the beginning of DUBUFFET's Hourloupe cycle, a completely new graphic language designed to be an exercise that gave free rein to spontaneous expression. The artist then cut out the arbitrarily drawn cells and pasted them onto a black background, instantly charging them with meaning. These instinctive drawings formed true “re-presentations” in the sense that they created a pictorial language that the artist used as a filter through which the simplest objects took on a new and revealing appearance.

The creative cycle of the Hourloupe lasted 12 years and culminated in 1973, after passing through various phases (work on paper, sculpture with Le Monument au Fantôme, architecture with La Villa Falbala), with a scenographic and avant-garde representation at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York on April 26, 1973, then at the Grand Palais in Paris on May 16 and 17, 1973, of Coucou Bazar, a vast tableau in motion and a veritable “bal de l'Hourloupe.” 

EXHIBITION « JEAN DUBUFFET-COUCOU BAZAR »
Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris, 23 October - 1st December 2013
© photo Luc Boegly

The Hourloupe cycle, which began as a modest and raw endeavor, became the most important phase in DUBUFFET's creative process, influencing all areas of his life through its extreme capacity for transposition to all subjects.

Ludovic MASSÉ (Évol, 1900 – Perpignan, 1982) made a name for himself as a libertarian writer rooted in the Roussillon region, combining regionalist inspiration with proletarian sensibilities. After starting out as a schoolteacher, he entered literary circles and joined the Proletarian Writers' Group. Forcibly displaced under the Vichy regime, he gave up teaching to devote himself to writing.
His main works include peasant and autobiographical novels marked by Catalan rural life, such as Le Mas des Oubells (1933), Le Vin pur (1945), and La Terre du liège (1953). 
His writing earned him the nickname “the Giono of Roussillon.”

MASSÉ met DUBUFFET in 1940. The two men became friends and maintained an extensive correspondence for more than four decades, which was published in 2000.

Jean DUBUFFET
PERSONNAGE (BUSTE), 1967 
Lithographic reproduction on paper
Printed in 1,000 copies by the Atelier Clot, Paris
48 x 28 cm

PERSONNAGE (BUSTE) M. 406 from 1967 was reproduced in a lithographic print run of 1,000 unnumbered copies.