DUBUFFET Jean. - Lot 158

DUBUFFET Jean. AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED to Florence Gould. Paris [1948]. 2 pages in-8 in ink. Formidable letter on art and against museums addressed to Florence Gould, a woman of letters and influence famous for her literary salon. ... I assure you that museums are the most detestable thing there is and the most contrary to art, to the good health of art (which always needs-like many other things-to forget its name) ... the country in Europe where there are the most museums (and especially museums of modern painting) is Switzerland ... it is also the country where there are the fewest real painters and artists. Museums are to art what the Sorbonne is to poetry. If you want to restore a sense of art to the people of this century, I'll show you how: abolish museums, abolish schools, abolish lectures, abolish art critics, abolish all reverence for artists, abolish art collectors, abolish art subsidies, abolish permits to practice as an artist, abolish the possibility of selling works of art or making any profit from them, abolish all attention to art and artists, abolish the word art from the vocabulary. DUBUFFET Jean. AUTOGRAPHIC LETTER SIGNED to Florence GOULD. El Golea, Tuesday, March 4 [1948]. 3 pages in-8. Beautiful letter about his stay in southern Algeria. .... We're becoming a little more uncivilized around here, and so much the better ... there's a lot of sun, a lot of sand and a lot of flies. A lot of wisdom too; human furniture is made up of very few things (a carpet, a fan and two teapots), very few elements, very few foodstuffs... it's a keyboard with very few keys, which is quite enough! There are always too many keys on a keyboard, too many pieces on a chessboard, but with a few it's a much prettier game... well, there's a lot, a lot to learn here about how to live.