In 1940s occupied Paris, Jean Dubuffet began to champion a progressive vision for art; one that rejected classical notions of beauty in favor of a more visceral aesthetic. Taking a pioneering approach to materiality and technique, the artist variously blended paint with sand, glass, tar, coal dust and string. At the same time, he began to assemble a collection of art brut-work that was made outside the academic tradition of fine art- even visiting psychiatric wards from 1945 to collect work by patients. This book features texts from leading scholars and is accompanied by images that illuminate Dubuffet-s attempts to move beyond the artistic expectations of his time. The works are grouped into six thematic sections that focus on specific series, from his graffiti-inspired -Walls- and his notorious portrait series, -People are Much More Beautiful Than They Think- to the -Corps de dames-, a controversial series of -female- landscapes, and his anthropomorphic sculptures, -Little Statues of
