Carnation sanguine

The lumpy, ungainly figure in "Blood-Red Complexion" fills the surface level. There is no depth either behind or in front of it. The artist pays no heed to conventional perspectives or proportions. The motif is modest and unassuming, the colour daringly applied. In the wake of the Second World War, Jean Dubuffet and many others experienced that a radical regeneration was needed in art. He was attracted by graffiti, the art of the street, with its secret signs and symbols. He was also inspired by pictures made by children and the mentally ill and by so-called primitive cultures. By returning to what he felt was primordial in painting, Dubuffet distanced himself from the war-torn civilisation which appeared to him as increasingly insane.