Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985)

Rendered in Jean Dubuffet's characteristically summary graphic style, Ane et Charette (Donkey and Cart) takes for its subject the artist's new pastoral environment, lucidly exploring the rustic motif of the donkey and cart, another example of which is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Deliberately flattened and removed from the actual objective measurement of things, in ne et Charette Dubuffet was captivated by finding a way of reinstating objects, not seen by eyes focusing on them but from involuntary, unconscious glances. Signalling a pivotal moment in the artist's career, the present work was included in the celebrated 1980 Dubuffet Retrospective in Berlin that travelled to Vienna and Cologne in the following year.