The Grand Arab (He Only Has Sand)

Contemporary Art

1947

Jean Dubuffet
French, 1901-1985

Dismayed by the state of society after the brutalities of World War II, Jean Dubuffet looked to nontraditional artistic sources, especially those of non-Western cultures. Beginning in 1947, Dubuffet took three extended trips to the Sahara; based on the art and culture he experienced on these visits, he made a number of works, including The Grand Arab. In 1951 he developed a personal manifesto critiquing the conformity of Western society and delivered his “Anticultural Positions” in a lecture at the Arts Club of Chicago. He urged for a postwar renaissance: “The values celebrated by our culture do not … correspond to the true dynamics of our minds.” His presentation inspired many young artists and collectors in Chicago, who were eager to find new artistic forms that were distinct from the iconic European modernist tradition.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Contemporary Art

Artist: Jean Dubuffet
Title: The Grand Arab (He Only Has Sand)
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1947
Medium: Oil and sand on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed, upper left, “J. Dubuffet”
Dimensions: 145.4 × 113 cm (57 1/4 × 44 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph R. Shapiro
Reference Number: 1996.391
Copyright: © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

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.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Selections From the Joseph Randall Shapiro Collection, exh. cat. (Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1969), n.p., cat. 21 (ill. as Le Grande Arabe).
Katherine Kuh and Dennis Adrian, The Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Randall Shapiro Collection, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1985), 1, fig. 1, cat. 43 (color ill.), 17, 21, 22, 110, cat. 43.
Paquet, Michel, Dubuffet, Nouvelles editions francaises, Paris, 1993, pl. 71, p.66

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.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Selections From the Joseph Randall Shapiro Collection, Dec. 20, 1969–Feb. 1, 1970, cat. 21 (as Le Grand Arabe).
The Art Institute of Chicago, The Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Randall Shapiro Collection, Feb. 23–Apr. 14, 1985, 43.

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

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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