1968 (cast 1969)

Landscape with Tree

French, 1901 - 1985

In 1962 Jean Dubuffet began a twelve-year series of paintings and sculptures featuring curved, biomorphic cellular forms that he called Hourloupe (a word he made up). Although at first he rendered these shapes in blue and red paintings, in 1966 he began applying the Hourloupe vocabulary to sculpture, eventually composing in only black and white. A decidedly unconventional treatment of the traditional subject of landscape, the composition also suggests a human figure standing by a table on which sit a plate and spoon. In addition, Landscape with Tree exemplifies Dubuffet's use, beginning in the late 1960s, of new materials in his work, in this case epoxy.