Galerie Beyeler, Basel
David Bonnier, Stockholm
Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris
Christie's, New York, May 23, 1978, lot 45
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale

Paris, Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Ustensiles, demeures, escaliers de Jean Dubuffet, June - July 1967, cat. no. 13
Stockholm, Galerie Buren, Jean Dubuffet: L'Hourloupe, October - November 1967, cat. no. 12
Bâle, Galerie Beyeler, Jean Dubuffet, February - April 1968, cat. no. 8

Max Loreau, ed., Catalogue des Travaux de Jean Dubuffet, Fascicule XXI: L'Hourloupe II, Paris, 1968, no. 75, p. 47, illustrated

This work is in very good condition overall. Please refer to the following condition report prepared by Simon Parkes Art Conservation.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Dubuffet focused his attention on creating a form of art that disregarded conventional Occidental ideals of beauty and normalcy. He was quite drawn to art which seemed to him to tap into a certain raw natural power that did not delineate between ugly and beautiful, rough and refined.  The present work, Chiffre Légendaire du Lavabo, is part of the Hourloupe cycle on which he began working in 1962.   All of the works in the cycle take common, man-made objects as their inspiration and subject matter and abstract the object through intersecting planes of primary color blocks.  Painting with such dedication ꩲto two-dimensionality, Dubuffet has🔜 managed to eliminate any sense of depth altogether.

Certainly, the viewer may recognize the essence of an object sitting atop an odd pedestal, as the large form of blocked color, which exists within the impenetrable blackness of the background.  Dubuffet has taken this common object, ෴distilled it via a certain abolition of any concrete notions one may have about the object, and reconstituted it as this new form, which is described here on the canvas.  The viewer is left with a visceral direct impression but one that achieves its goal while refuting any perception of the "real."  The lack of three-dimensionality removes the object from the natural world and instead places it within this more ethereal and immediate context which Dubuffet constantly sought to describe throughout his oeuvre.