The Cow With The Subtle Nose

Dubuffet's heavy experience in the country and rejection of art education is evident in this painting. The heavily textured surface depicts a cow, rendered in the childlike style of  pieces by patients held in psychological facilities. The uninhibited, almost savage approach to the canvas exemplifies the concept of what Dubuffet termed Art Brut—the image seems entirely unschooled in the traditions of landscape. The image is thus at odds with the notions of “high art,” and approaches artmaking from the direction of artistic purity uninfluenced by cultural advancement. Going a step further, Dubuffet suggests how the “cultural” and the “savage” approaches to art work together to reaffirm civilization as a whole.