About This Artwork

Jean Dubuffet
French, 1901-1985

The Grand Arab (He Only Has Sand), 1947

Oil and sand on canvas
145.4 x 113 cm (57 1/4 x 44 1/2 in.)
Signed, upper left, “J. Dubuffet”
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Randall Shapiro, 1996.391

© 2008 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

Paris, Galerie Rene Drouin, Portrait a ressemblance extraite, a reseemblnace cuite et confite dans la memoire, a ressemblance eclatee dans la memoire de M. Jean dubuffet, October 7-30, 1947, cat. no. 77

Chicago, The Arts Club of Chicago, Surrealism Then and Now, 1958, cat. no. 17.

Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Selections from the Joseph Randall Shapiro Collection, 1970, cat. no. 21.

Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Randall Shapiro Collection, 1985, cat. no. 43.

Publication History

Sidney Janis Gallery, 5th Anniversary Exhibition, New York, 1953, cat. no. 14.

Jean-Jacques Pauvert, ed., Catalog des Travaux de Jean Dubuffet, Fascicule IV: Roses d’Allah, clowns du desert, cat. no. 15.

Paquet, Michel, Dubuffet, Nouvelles editions francaises, Paris, 1993, pl. 71, p.66

Ownership History

Sidney Janis Gallery, New York; sold to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Randall Shapiro, Oak Park, Illinois by 1953; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1996.