Introduction

"There is probably more to be learned from the way an artist makes himself for his own use a history of art, in a way private and necessarily partial – and biased – than of all the volumes which claim to restore the objective panorama. In his Biography at a Running Pace, written in the evening of his life by Jean Dubuffet, Hubert Damisch is one of the few people mentioned. "The Gallimard Editions undertook to bring together all my writings which were scattered and which Hubert Damisch applied himself with admirable care to collect and annotate. frequent meetings resulted from this, then assiduous friendly ties between our households." In the artist's precise style, everything is said: the friendly relationship sincere, long-term artistic companionship, mutual theoretical respect. Bringing together all the essays and articles that Hubert Damisch devoted to the work of Jean Dubuffet, as well as their correspondence between 1961 and the disappearance of the artist, this work bears witness to this intellectual journey and artistic crossover, of this erudite relationship, made of ruptures and intelligence. Edited and presented by Sophie Berrebi, Entrée en matière allows to approach, simultaneously and as closely as possible, the making of the works – whether they whether literary or plastic – the way in which the thought of a person evolves art historian philosopher, in contact with a creator who is contemporary, and the work of the one that Hubert Damisch nicknamed "the new Robinson", a major figure in 20th century art, recognized for his radical plastic experiments and its unique position within the system contemporary cultural.