Dubuffet and Brutalism: Barbican Walking Tour

Join Jon Astbury, Assistant Curator, Architecture & Design at the Barbican for a walking tour around the Barbican Estate, exploring the relationship between Jean Dubuffet, Art Brut and Brutalism.

Art Brut and Brutalism – both terms share a use of the French ‘brut’, meaning ‘raw’, ‘crude’ or (if we are talking about champagne) ‘dry’. But beyond their linguistic similarities and the aesthetic they evoke, these two movements – both emerging in the late 1940s and early ’50s – shared a deeper set of concerns about what art and architecture could and should be.

This event has been programmed to coincide with Jean Dubuffet: Brutal Beauty, an exhibition celebrating French artist Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985), one of the most singular and provocative voices in postwar modern art.