Algèbre de l’Hourloupe, 52 figures extrapolatoires, 1968

Jean Dubuffet   Master Artists

A 12-year cycle, the artist's longest and most monumental, which initiated the gallery's relationship with the artist. It began with small, instinctive graphic drawings, initially executed in blue and red ballpoint pen.

They explore the infinite variety of the world through an adventurous line, allowing images to emerge, using a wide range of techniques: markers, felt-tip pens, vinyl, collages, and cutouts of all kinds, which excite the artist with their almost magical visual potential. Continuing this adventure on paper, he takes the path of paintings and sculptures, which will become monumental, culminating in the most unimaginable architectural creations, such as the [unspecified building], housing the [unspecified] and the costumes of the show. Some twenty solo exhibitions, as well as numerous publications, mark Jean Dubuffet's journey at the Jeanne Bucher Jaeger gallery.

For the card game (which isn't a true card game since it merely plays with its form), Dubuffet composed 52 figures based on the spontaneous, direct inventiveness of the hand, which independently creates the lines, shapes, and figures. These figures reveal a dog, a clown, a rocket, or two people embracing only to immediately conceal them again, thus leading the imagination in a different direction.

The 52-card deck has been published in two successive editions. The first, in 1967, was titled and silkscreened from Jean Dubuffet's original marker drawings (1964-67), produced with the London-based publisher Alecto. This edition was limited to 350 numbered copies, plus 30 copies not for sale. The 52 cards, measuring 25 x 16 cm, each feature a different image on its face, rendered in a limited color palette: blue and red on a black background, alternating solid colors and hatching according to the artist's distinctive style. In addition to the 52 cards, the set includes a title card and a box, decorated with two motifs, which bears the handwritten instructions on its inside.

The second edition, based on the same original drawings by Jean Dubuffet and published in March 1968, is a co-edition between Galerie Jeanne Bucher and Galerie Beyeler, printed by the master cardmaker Baptiste-Paul Grimaud in Nancy. This second edition is titled "The format of the cards is 17 × 11.2 cm, the same as the originals."

The title card and the card backs feature original designs that were used to decorate the front and back of the box, respectively. This is an unlimited offset print run, which also resulted in a special edition for English-speaking countries. This second set comes in a slightly different box and features a new title on a white background. It includes a card listing the 52 figures in the game, followed by their English translations. Jean Dubuffet's card game was studied in the catalogue raisonné by Max Loreau and later by Sophie Webel.

In this version, which reproduces the previous one, the drawing that appeared on the back of the half-title card is replaced by the list (titled) of the fifty-two titles accompanied by their English translation.

The work, as well as and was the subject of a specific presentation at the gallery between November 7 and 30, 1968.

So that everyone can play their games of , which Dubuffet considers as an algebra, all the beings or objects that populate these cards, rather than being taken for themselves, are destined to light up, by chance, multitudes of combinations.

Bibliography:

Catalogue of the works of Jean Dubuffet, Maps, Utensils, fascicle XXII, Switzerland, 1975, ill. 168, pp.54-57