In 1966, Dubuffet began to produce three-dimensional objects using the vernacular of his renowned Hourloupe series. Dubuffet constructed the works from polystyrene, a lightweight white synthetic material that the artist could easily cut with a hot wire. He painted the objects with the same flat contours and colors that characterized the patterned surfaces of the Hourloupe works. Dubuffet insisted that the new body of work represented three dimensional drawings and paintings, rather than sculpture in the traditional sense.

"They do not belong to the realm of sculpture but, rather, to that of painting...which, in this instance, has been,...endowed with a body, that is, corporalized, objectivated painting" (J. Dubuffet quoted in M. Glimcher, ed., Jean Dubuffet: Towards an alternative reality, New York, 1987, p. 16).