Two Bedouins

During the winter 1947-48, Dubuffet spent five months in the Sahara desert, where he painted his impressions of the local mores and population in colorful studies in his typical style inspired by childrenʼs drawings, graffiti, and the art of psychiatric patients. The subject of the present sheet reveals his fascination with the pattern of folds in the Bedouinsʼ burnooses. Using a home-made gouache he produced by mixing pigments with gum arabic, Dubuffet applied the medium in layers, scratching the top layers to expose brighter colors below and creating a rich surface.