Dark Graces (Grâces ténébreuses) from the portfolio Anarchitect (L'Anarchitecte) from Phenomena (Les Phénomènes)

French, 1901–1985

1959

A grainy black-and-white lithograph in which Jean Dubuffet conjures shadowy, ambiguous figures and roughened surfaces to oppose polished, academic imagery.

At first glance a soot‑like field of mottled blacks and grays overwhelms the sheet, with faint halos, ghostly profiles and scratches emerging and receding in a rubbed, tactile surface that makes you search for forms.

Part of Dubuffet’s Anarchitect series, this print treats lithography as a means to preserve improvised, material textures and helped push postwar art toward a celebration of roughness, everyday surfaces, and an anti‑bourgeois aesthetic.

Medium

One from a portfolio of ten lithographs

Dimensions

composition: 18 9/16 x 14 3/8" (47.1 x 36.5 cm); sheet: 25 1/8 x 17 11/16" (63.8 x 45 cm)

Classification

Department

Drawings & Prints

Credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph F. Colin

Accession

746.1965.8

Palette

Art Terms

Lithography Print Monochrome Portfolio Modern art Abstraction

Exhibitions

Painting and Sculpture from the Museum Collection

1964

Dubuffet: Works on Paper

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Transmissions from the portfolio Territories (Territoires) from Phenomena (Les Phénomènes)

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Dark Graces (Grâces ténébreuses) from the portfolio Anarchitect (L'Anarchitecte) from Phenomena (Les Phénomènes)

Jean Dubuffet

French, 1901–1985

1959

A grainy black-and-white lithograph in which Jean Dubuffet conjures shadowy, ambiguous figures and roughened surfaces to oppose polished, academic imagery.

Medium

One from a portfolio of ten lithographs

Dimensions

composition: 18 9/16 x 14 3/8" (47.1 x 36.5 cm); sheet: 25 1/8 x 17 11/16" (63.8 x 45 cm)

Classification

Department

Drawings & Prints

Credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph F. Colin

Accession

746.1965.8

Palette

Art Terms

Lithography Print Monochrome Portfolio Modern art Abstraction

Exhibitions

Painting and Sculpture from the Museum Collection

1964

Dubuffet: Works on Paper

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Dark Graces (Grâces ténébreuses) from the portfolio Anarchitect (L'Anarchitecte) from Phenomena (Les Phénomènes)

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