Jean Dubuffet was born in Le Havre in 1901. In 1918, hoping to become a painter, he moved to Paris and attended painting classes at the Académie Julian. He moved in Surrealist circles. After his military service Dubuffet returned to Le Havre and worked in the wine trade. Until 1942 he continued to work at jobs having nothing to do with art, but then once again devoted himself to painting. He had his first solo exhibition in 1944 at the Galerie René Drouin. In 1945 he coined the term “Art Brut” (French: raw art) and became interested in artworks far removed from academic training and aesthetic values. He began collecting works by the mentally ill, children and other autodidacts. He was given retrospectives in Paris, Zurich and Hanover, and participated in numerous other exhibitions. Dubuffet died in Paris in 1985.
