Pace Prints is pleased to announce an exhibition of prints by Jean Dubuffet. The exhibition will be on view from June 11–July 18, 2026, at 536 West 22nd Street.
Focusing on several important portfolios and series produced throughout the 1970’s, this exhibition showcases the ways in which Dubuffet employed both traditional and innovative screenprinting techniques to capture his distinctive and enigmatic imagery. Created amidst pivotal periods for the artist, including during his L’Hourloupe cycle and the Théâtres de Memoire series, these works find Dubuffet flattening, layering, and isolating his iconic figures and forms, while experimenting with the visual possibilities of the medium.
The earliest portfolio in the show, Présences Fugaces, presents a suite of six screenprints first published by Pace Editions in 1973. This project was the first to be produced by the artist for Pace Editions and features singular L’Hourloupe figures surrounded by fields of rich, matte color. These works exemplify the ways in which Dubuffet’s print oeuvre often tracked to developments in his painting, while distilling the graphic qualities that define his most important works from the period.
Several impressions from the Fables series published in 1976 explore the expressive qualities of silkscreen techniques by re-introducing Dubuffet’s painterly mark making. The works invoke the creative genesis of his L’Hourloupe cycle—drawing in felt tip markers—with washes of color and permeable lines that achieve highly textured effects.
In the Faits Mémorables portfolio, Dubuffet expands his use of silkscreen by layering the process to create the illusion of three-dimensional collage. Figurative and abstract images pulled from various periods of his career were printed first in a single layer. That composite image was then re-screened and reprinted to create the final collaged illusion. Closely resembling the aesthetic experimentations of his Théâtre de Memoire paintings, Dubuffet populated these prints with motifs from previous moments in his life to create new images that push his iconography into new territory.
The show gathers three rare examples of Dubuffet’s Site de Mémoire I-III, a series of monumental silkscreen editions on canvas from 1979. Produced in limited editions of 10, these works epitomize Dubuffet’s iconoclastic approach by printing the image directly onto stretched canvas—a highly unconventional application of the medium at the time.
The breadth of Dubuffet’s prolific creativity is encapsulated in these printed works, which were born out of a period of stylistic and technical experimentation that cemented Dubuffet’s singular legacy as a groundbreaking innovator of visual art during the 20th Century.
Please contact us at info@paceprints.com to inquire or request any additional information.