During Paris Art Week 2025, Opera Gallery presents Jean Dubuffet: L’Hourloupe et son sillage (1962–1982), a major solo exhibition dedicated to one of the most radical figures of Post-War French art. Running from 16 October to 12 November, this exhibition marks the 40th anniversary of Dubuffet’s passing and celebrates the transformative power of his iconic L’Hourloupe series. Through a curated selection spanning twenty years, the show traces the evolution of Dubuffet’s practice, from his experimental automatic drawings to large-scale immersive installations, revealing a career defined by rebellion, intuition, and artistic invention.

The L’Hourloupe Series: A Radical Reimagining

Central to this exhibition is Dubuffet’s seminal L’Hourloupe series, created over a twelve-year period from 1962 to 1974. The series represents a radical departure from his previous work, establishing a visual system built from cellular forms rendered in flat areas of red and blue, thick black outlines, hatching, and stark white spaces. These works originated from what Dubuffet described as “automatic drawings,” sketched during telephone conversations, and exemplify his desire to abstract entirely from the everyday natural world, relying instead on the mind’s own imaginative elaborations.

The L’Hourloupe series marked a pivotal moment in Dubuffet’s oeuvre, influencing subsequent works such as Coucou Bazar, Roman Burlesque, Sites Tricolores, Crayonnages, Récits, Conjectures, Parachiffres, Mondanités, Lieux Abrégés, Théâtres de Mémoire, Psycho-sites, and Sites Aléatoires. Each of these series carries the DNA of L’Hourloupe; a visual language characterised by abstraction, repetition, and playful subversion, underscoring Dubuffet’s relentless experimentation with form and perception.

From Drawing to Immersive Performance

Among the exhibition’s highlights is Échec à l’être (1971), one of Dubuffet’s 175 large-scale “Practicables” conceived initially for Coucou Bazar, an hour-long immersive performance first staged at the Guggenheim Museum in 1973. In this groundbreaking show, painted cutouts, costumed actors, and sculptural elements brought the L’Hourloupe universe to life, transforming the gallery space into a living theatre. This integration of painting, sculpture, and performance illustrates Dubuffet’s commitment to dissolving boundaries between media, inviting viewers to inhabit his imagined worlds.

Later works, such as Site au Défunt (1982) from the Sites Aléatoires series, continue the exploration of cut-and-collage techniques. In these compositions, childlike, ideogram-inspired characters populate abstracted landscapes; a continuation of his Psycho-sites series, demonstrating how Dubuffet’s radical vision persisted until the final years of his career.

Deconstructing Reality: Figuration, Abstraction, and Material Innovation

Dubuffet’s practice is defined by tension: between construction and deconstruction, figuration and abstraction, matter and language. The L’Hourloupe series embodies this dynamic, presenting a world simultaneously playful and profound, chaotic and structured. Each line, colour, and form is the result of an inventive thought process, a negotiation between spontaneity and system, imagination and discipline. As Dubuffet himself noted in a 1968 statement, his goal was to nourish the gaze “only with one’s own mental elaborations,” privileging inner vision over external representation.

Material experimentation is equally central to Dubuffet’s practice. From sand and tar to painted cutouts and unconventional sculptural surfaces, he challenged traditional notions of artistic medium. His works insist that texture, matter, and physicality are inseparable from concept, making the creative act itself a visible component of the finished object. This radical approach positions Dubuffet as both a pioneer of Art Brut and a visionary whose ideas resonate with contemporary design and craft.

Opera Gallery and Dubuffet’s Enduring Legacy

For Opera Gallery, Dubuffet’s work is emblematic of the gallery’s curatorial philosophy: a commitment to innovation, artistic rebellion, and the exploration of Post-War French art. “Dubuffet’s work reflects the very DNA of Opera Gallery,” says Marion Petitdidier, Director of Opera Gallery Paris. “We’ve long been committed to reexamining the French Post-War canon and connecting it with contemporary sensibilities. His radical language, material experimentation, and rejection of convention are themes we return to again and again.”

The gallery’s dedication to Dubuffet is longstanding. Following its 2021 Paris exhibition Bal des Figures, Opera Gallery continues to celebrate the artist’s legacy while situating his work within the context of contemporary dialogue. By presenting L’Hourloupe et son sillage during Paris Art Week, a moment of heightened international attention coinciding with Art Basel, Opera Gallery reaffirms Paris as a hub for postwar and contemporary art discourse.

Jean Dubuffet: A Revolutionary Figure in Post-War Art

Born in Le Havre in 1901, Jean Dubuffet is widely recognised as the founder of the Art Brut movement, which championed the untrained, raw creativity of children, psychiatric patients, and other “outsider” artists. Dubuffet’s own practice was defined by a rejection of academic standards, favouring a bold, primitive aesthetic that embraced imperfection, spontaneity, and unconventional materials. Over his forty-year career, he challenged prevailing artistic norms, influencing a generation of postwar and contemporary artists with his radical vision and inventive forms.

Dubuffet’s works have been exhibited globally in over thirty travelling exhibitions and numerous retrospectives, and they are held in significant public collections including The Art Institute of Chicago, Centre Pompidou (Paris), Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, LACMA, The Met (New York), Tate (London), and more. His art continues to inspire contemporary makers across various disciplines, including painting, sculpture, design, and performance.

A Celebration of Radical Creativity

Jean Dubuffet: L’Hourloupe et son sillage is more than a retrospective; it is a celebration of creative audacity. By showcasing two decades of Dubuffet’s innovation, from L’Hourloupe to Sites Aléatoires, the exhibition illuminates the intellectual rigour and playful subversion that defined his career. Visitors are invited to witness how a single artist’s radical vision can reshape the boundaries of artistic practice, influencing not only visual art but design, craft, and performance.

Through this exhibition, Opera Gallery reaffirms its mission to bridge historical and contemporary artistic practices, offering a platform for works that challenge convention and inspire dialogue. L’Hourloupe et son sillage is both a homage to a singular genius and a testament to the enduring relevance of Post-War French art in today’s cultural landscape.