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The Arts Intel Report

Jean Dubuffet: Brutal Beauty

May 17 – Aug 22, 2021
Barbican Centre Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS

“Art should always make you laugh a little and fear a little,” said the 20th-century artist Jean Dubuffet. “Anything but bore.” True to his word, Dubuffet was always experimenting. He rejected the traditional and trendy in favor of the instinctual and unschooled, and took inspiration from the art of children, prisoners, and the mentally ill, work he grouped together under the term “Art Brut.” This exhibition spans five decades of paintings, sculptures, and assemblages by Dubuffet. In addition, some of the Art Brut work he collected is on view. —E.C.

Jean Dubuffet, “Skedaddle (L’Escampette),” 1964 © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London.