Zône habitée by Jean Dubuffet is a superb example from the Partitions series, demonstrating the quintessential qualities of the limited but innovative series created in the final years of his life. The work was exhibited in September 1981 at Waddington Galleries in London, where it was subsequently acquired by Mary and George Bloch, and has remained in their collects ion ever since. Executed in December 1980, the busy composition of Zône habitée, with multiple figures and vivid palette, exudes a sense of urban energy reminiscent of his Paris Circus and L’Hourloupe series. At the same t.mes , the frenzied brushwork and layered organic forms foreshadow the abstract compositions of his final and entirely abstract body of work, Non-lieux. Despite the playful atmosphere, the characters inhabiting the space are non-specific, moving away from physical referents as they venture into an abstract language. This quality of indeterminacy and the notion of creating a psychological landscape would come to preoccupy Dubuffet in the highly productive final years of his life, illustrated in works such as Zône habitée where the lines between figuration, urban cityscape and abstraction become increasingly fluid and blurred.

In the present work, six figures are rendered with graphic simplicity, all looking in different directions and each contained within colourful linear borders. Dubuffet’s rendering of the human form became decreasingly individualised in these later years, eventually merging into the landscape. In the present work, this simplification of the human body is evident, but there remains variation in the figures through different items of clothing, facial and bodily gestures. Each of the figures is enclosed in an interior form, creating a sense of isolation. As Dubuffet himself explained regarding the series: “The name ‘Partitions’ was given to this ensemble of paintings because of what might be described as a constantly occurring modulation of space. In each of these paintings, space is broken down into zones… with the scale changing from one zone to the next just as the focus of a telescope changes when it is adjusted, resulting in the impression of a composite space on different levels or sections, in which high and low, far and near, are no longer quite explicit” (Jean Dubuffet quoted in: Exh. Cat, Salzburg, Museum der Moderne, Rupertinum Salzburg (and travelling), Jean Dubuffet – Traces of an Adventure, 2003, p. 240).

Dubuffet’s visual language took a turn in 1975 with the beginning of his Théâtres de mémoire series. A series of large assemblages inspired by the French translation of Frances Yates’ book The Art of Memory, works from this period are distinguished by their patches of frantic scribbles and gestural abstraction combined with disparate patches of figurative elements to create an image of memory. Then in August of 1978, the series abruptly came to an end due to a dramatic inflammation of Dubuffet’s lower back, leaving him unable to climb ladders, and therefore forcing him to work in smaller scales. Forced to paint primarily seated, Dubuffet created Sites aux figurines, which is a body of vigorous drawings, employing the fragmented viewpoint of the Théâtres de mémoire. Partitions followed Sites aux figurines and lasted for about a year between 1980-81, and demonstrates a maturation of the visual strategies of dividing spaces through compositional elements to echo the fragmented effects of collage, in a smaller scale.

In Zône habitée, Dubuffet strips away all recognizable signs of landscape and city-life, instead allowing the kaleidoscopic forms in reds, blues, yellows, and shades of white to fit into a composition like a jigsaw puzzle. The title of the present work translates to “inhabited zones,” and here, Dubuffet divided spaces on the surface to showcase a range of zones either empty or occupied by one or two figures. These subjects, as in most of Dubuffet’s oeuvre, have little to no individual identities, and instead represent the universal mass of humanity and the homogenous body of city dwellers. In a similar vein to artists such as Edvard Munch, Fernand Léger and Pablo Picasso, Dubuffet explores the relationship between figures both within the confines of an interior and within the urban environment. Dubuffet’s lines which divide the painted surface into different zones are not only portrayals of divisions in physical spaces, but also extend to psychological divisions and the barriers within a mental landscape.

Despite the physical challenges, Dubuffet’s output during the final decade of his life was remarkably productive, with the creation of a new cycle of works at regular intervals. Throughout this period, Dubuffet became increasingly preoccupied with a move towards depicting the mental rather than the physical, and his works transition from transposing impressions of his surroundings towards creating a landscape of the mind. Occupying the mid-point in this transition into complete abstraction, Zône habitée is an important example of Dubuffet’s continued exploration into capturing the memory and the psychological. In Dubuffet’s own words, “I believe that in all my works I have been concerned with representing what makes up our thoughts – to represent not the objective world, but what it becomes in our thoughts” (Jean Dubuffet quoted in: Exh. Cat., London, Barbican, Jean Dubuffet: Brutal Beauty, 2021, p. 247).