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Jean Dubuffet, Façades d’immeubles (Building Façades), 1946, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of the Stephen Hahn Family Collection

Façades d’immeubles (Building Façades), Dubuffet

The rough texture, somber color palette, and coarse style of Dubuffet’s paintings confront the viewer with their directness. In this work, he depicts a city in a graffiti-like figurative style. He created the animated, crudely drawn stick figures of this postwar apartment complex by scratching through black paint to reveal hidden, delicate colors beneath.

09/30/16