Jean Dubuffet was acknowledged to be
one of the most important artists of the
post-war generation. A wine merchant
turned polemicist turned art rebel, the 43-
year-old Dubuffet had his first one-man
show in Paris in 1944, with the Germans
barely departed. Violently anti-tradition at
a time when many of the French longed
for a return to normalcy, Dubuffet antagonized
the art establishment with his dynamic style--
and his articulate arguments justifying his
new way of thinking.