Jean Dubuffet
Orator at the Wall
1945
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Jean Dubuffet
Orator at the Wall
1945
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, 38 1/4 x 51 1/4 in. (97.2 x 130.2 cm.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Saidie A. May
Object Number
1951.293
Here, a cartoonish figure speaks animatedly on a colorful city street. Jean Dubuffet studied art in his youth but put painting aside to pursue a career in the wine business. His hobby of creating masks and wooden puppets led him gradually back to painting, becoming obsessed with the surface and texture of Parisian postwar decaying buildings. In 1945, Dubuffet produced a series of works executed in a purposely crude and flat manner, featuring childlike figures placed in front of thickly painted and vividly colored walls.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1951; from Saidie A. May; purchased from Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1946
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "The Saidie A. May Collection of Modern paintings and Sculpture", March 17-April 16, 1950, cat. 33.
Pierre Matisse Gallery, NY, "Dubuffet Retrospective Exhibition", November 8 - December 12, 1959, Cat. No. 11, Illus. pl. 11
Museum of Modern Art, "Dubuffet", February 19 - April 15, 1962 : Art Institute of Chicago, May 17 - June 17, 1962: L. A. County Museum, July 10 - August 12, 1962
Baltimore Museum of Art, "From El Greco to Pollock: Early and Late Works by European & American Artists", October 22 - December 8, 1968, Cat #103, repr. p. 126
Baltimore Museum of Art, "20th Century European Paintings and Sculpture", July 9 - September 23, 1969
MoMA International Program, "Post-War Masters of Figurative Art: Bacon, Dubuffet, Ciacometti, De Kooning", Caracas, Venezuela (April 1973), Bogota, Columbia (June, 1973), Buenos Aires, Argentina (August 1973), Montevideo, Uruguay (September 1972), Melbourne, Australia (November 1973), Sydney, Australia (January 1974), Adelaide, Australia (March 1974)
Baltimore Museum of Art, "Saidie A. May Collection", September 6 - November 22, 1972, Cat. p. 58, ill.
Gruenbaum Gallery Ltd., New York City, October 8 - November 1, 1975
Des Moines Art Center, "European Art: The Postwar Decade 1945-1955", September 18 - October 29, 1978
Centre Pompidou, Paris, "Jean Dubuffet", September 12, 2001-December 31, 2001.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, "Impressionism to Surrealism from The Baltimore Museum of Art. Selections from the Collections of Claribel and Etta Cone, Saidie Adler May and Blanche Adler", February 8-April 21, 2002, cat. 7, p. 15, ill. p.13.
Katy Rothkopf, "Matisse, Picasso and the School of Paris", circulated to; North Carolina Museum of Art, October 10, 2004-January 16, 2005, Naples Museum of Art February 5, 2005-May 1, 2005.
Hauser & Wirth Zurich, "Jean Debuffet and The City", June 9 - September 1, 2018
Pierre Matisse Gallery, NY, "Dubuffet Retrospective Exhibition", November 8 - December 12, 1959, Cat. No. 11, Illus. pl. 11
Museum of Modern Art, "Dubuffet", February 19 - April 15, 1962 : Art Institute of Chicago, May 17 - June 17, 1962: L. A. County Museum, July 10 - August 12, 1962
Baltimore Museum of Art, "From El Greco to Pollock: Early and Late Works by European & American Artists", October 22 - December 8, 1968, Cat #103, repr. p. 126
Baltimore Museum of Art, "20th Century European Paintings and Sculpture", July 9 - September 23, 1969
MoMA International Program, "Post-War Masters of Figurative Art: Bacon, Dubuffet, Ciacometti, De Kooning", Caracas, Venezuela (April 1973), Bogota, Columbia (June, 1973), Buenos Aires, Argentina (August 1973), Montevideo, Uruguay (September 1972), Melbourne, Australia (November 1973), Sydney, Australia (January 1974), Adelaide, Australia (March 1974)
Baltimore Museum of Art, "Saidie A. May Collection", September 6 - November 22, 1972, Cat. p. 58, ill.
Gruenbaum Gallery Ltd., New York City, October 8 - November 1, 1975
Des Moines Art Center, "European Art: The Postwar Decade 1945-1955", September 18 - October 29, 1978
Centre Pompidou, Paris, "Jean Dubuffet", September 12, 2001-December 31, 2001.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, "Impressionism to Surrealism from The Baltimore Museum of Art. Selections from the Collections of Claribel and Etta Cone, Saidie Adler May and Blanche Adler", February 8-April 21, 2002, cat. 7, p. 15, ill. p.13.
Katy Rothkopf, "Matisse, Picasso and the School of Paris", circulated to; North Carolina Museum of Art, October 10, 2004-January 16, 2005, Naples Museum of Art February 5, 2005-May 1, 2005.
Hauser & Wirth Zurich, "Jean Debuffet and The City", June 9 - September 1, 2018
The Baltimore Museum of Art News, “Catalogue of the Saidie A. May Collection of Modern Paintings and Sculpture,” March 1950, cat. 33, p. 12.
Rosenthal, Gertrude, ed. From El Greco to Pollock: Early and Late Works by European and American Artists. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1968, pp. 126, ill.
Jane Harrison Cone, "Saidie A. May Collection", The Baltimore Museum of Art Record, 3:1, 1972, p. 58.
Inscribed: Signed/dated at bottom center: J. Dubuffet Mars 45
