Creating Connections: Self-Taught Artists in the Rosenthal Collection Audio Exhibition
Jean Dubuffet (French, 1901–1985), Annal XII (Annale XII), 1978, pen and black ink with collage, 13 13/16 x 20 3/16 in. (35.1 x 51.3 cm), Collection of Richard Rosenthal, © 2002 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Verbal Description
Hello, my name is John Hedges, and I am a gallery attendant for the museum. I will be reading the verbal description for Annal XII (Annale XII) by Jean Dubuffet in Creating Connections: Self-Taught Artists in the Rosenthal Collection.
Jean Dubuffet was a French artist who lived from 1901 to 1985. His Annal XII (12) (Annale XII) from 1978 is pen and black ink with collage. It is in the collection of Richard Rosenthal.
Annal XII (12) is a horizontally oriented pen with black ink and collage drawing measuring 13 and thirteen-sixteenths by 20 and three-sixteenths inches or 35.1 by 51.3 centimeters. This black and white drawing is busy, with thick and thin black lines forming various irregular patterns and organic shapes, covering the entirety of the page. Six abstract figures are encased in rectangular and rounded shapes that set them apart from the busy background. One man in the upper left has an elongated, bean-shaped head and, although portrayed from the front, has a nose seen in profile. Shadows on his face are implied with shapes the artist filled with parallel lines. The suit he wears suggests an eighteenth-century waistcoat with a striped vest or shirt. To his right, a group of three small, cartoon-like figures appear in a white square. Moving further across the page, against a black area, is a larger, white figure with bent knees and arms raised. In the lower right corner is yet another white figure, shown from the waist up with his head tilted upward. At the upper right is a roughly rectangular shape in which the artist has drawn something and scribbled it out.
Label Text
Hello, my name is John Hedges, and I am a gallery attendant for the museum. I will be reading the label for Annal XII (Annale XII) by Jean Dubuffet in Creating Connections: Self-Taught Artists in the Rosenthal Collection.
Jean Dubuffet was a French artist who lived from 1901 to 1985. His Annal XII (12) (Annale XII) from 1978 is pen and black ink with collage. It is in the collection of Richard Rosenthal.
If you assumed that this ink drawing was the work of a self-taught artist, you would be wrong—although it is not surprising. Jean Dubuffet was a pioneer in the appreciation and promotion of artists working beyond the confines of the “art world.” He admired the creative work of children as well as many of the adults included in this exhibition. Modern artists throughout the twentieth century embraced art that, to their eyes, appeared unconventional and suggested avenues to the creation of new and exciting work. Here, Dubuffet pays homage to Picasso, the master of Cubism, in the figure at upper left and to his self-taught heroes elsewhere. He once wrote, “I feel that every work of art should in the highest degree lift one out of context, provoking a surprise and a shock.”