Topographie au nid de pierres (Topography With a Nest of Stones)

Inscriptions

Signed and dated, lower right: J. Dubuffet 58; signed, dated, and inscribed, on reverse: Topograpie au nid / de pierres / decembre 58 / J. Dubuffet. Labels on reverse from Delamare & Cie., Paris; Artes, Vavin; Kestner-Gesselschat #81. Inscribed on stretcher: noire.

Label

The sensuous surface of Topography with a Nest of Stones becomes a field for fascinating discoveries. As viewers we are compelled to connect what we find with our personal associations of what a stony ground or landscape viewed from a distance can—or should—look like. Our past and our expectations merge with our present viewing of the painting to create a new, unprecedented occurrence. The artist worked to instigate experience as his art. We see, we feel, we think—the loop between artist and viewer is completed and the work of art is brought to life.

Despite his extensive art training, Jean Dubuffet claimed that previous artistic conventions were of little value. Striving to create art that was new and unconventional, he coined the term art brut. He valued art made without concern for traditional aesthetic principles, including works by untrained artists. He felt that intellectualism interfered with direct experience—which, for Dubuffet, was the ultimate goal for art.

From the 2019 exhibition Cubism and Its Aftershocks, curated by John R. Stomberg Ph.D, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961s Director

Course History

WRIT 5, The View from the Balcony: Learning How You Learn, Prudence Merton, Winter 2013

SART 25, SART 31, Painting I, II, Summer 2013

SART 25, Painting I, Tom Ferrara, Fall 2013

SART 25, Painting I, Tom Ferrara, Spring 2014

SART 15, Drawing I, Jerry Auten, Summer 2014

SART 25, SART 31, Painting I, Painting II, Tom Ferrara, Summer 2021

SART 25.01, Painting I, Tom Ferrara, Fall 2021

SART 31/SART 72, Painting II/III, Tom Ferrara, Fall 2021

Studio Art 31.01/72.01, Painting II/III, Jen Caine, Winter 2023

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 3, Allison J. Evans, Class of 2002, Curatorial Intern, Main Lobby, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26-March 3, 2002.

A Space for Dialogue 62, Aerial Perspectives, Grounded in an Infinite Landscape, Natalia Wrobel, Class of 2011, Class of 1954 Intern, Main Lobby, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 29-Feburary 28, 2011.

Acquisitions 1974-1978, Jaffe-Friede, Strauss and Barrows Galleries, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 8, 1978-January 21, 1979.

Art Since 1945: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 19, 1992-March 14, 1993.

Basis for Design: Visual Problem Solving, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Studio Art 10, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 31-April 26, 1998.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 1-November 27, 1996.

Contemporary Art from the College Collection, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 24-March 2, 1975.

Cubism and Its Aftershocks, Citrin Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26, 2019-February 16, 2020.

In Quest for Excellence, Center for Fine Arts, Miami, Florida, January 14-April 22, 1984.

Jean Dubuffet 1943-1963: Paintings, Sculptures, Assemblages, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Wasington D.C., June 17-September 12, 1993.

Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 26,2009-March 15, 2010.

Second Stage of Modernism: Art from 1945 to the present, William B. Jaffe, Evelyn A. Jaffe Hall, Churchill P. Lathrop, Friends and Owen Robertson Cheatham Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 6-August 16, 1987.

Selections: Contemporary Art, Jaffe-Friede, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 12, 1975-January 11, 1976.

The Dartmouth Collection: 19th & 20th Century Paintings, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 17-November 6, 1982.

Publication History

James T. Demetrion, Susan J. Cooke, Jean Planque and Peter Schjeldahl, Jean Dubuffet 1943-1963: Paintings, Sculptures, Assemblages, Washington, D.C.: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in association with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993, ill. p. 120.

Treasures of the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1985

Reproduced in CATALOGUE DES TRAVAUX DE JEAN DUBUFFET by Max Loreau, vol. 14, #88.

Brian P. Kennedy and Emily Shubert Burke, Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2009 p.137, no.108.

Natalia Wrobel, A Space for Dialogue 62, Aerial Perspectives, Grounded in an Infinite Landscape, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2011, p. 1, ill.

John R. Stomberg, The Hood Now: Art and Inquiry at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019, p. 168, ill. plate no. 99.

Provenance

Joachim Jean Aberbach (1910-1992), Old Westbury, New York; given to present collection, 1975.

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