Dubuffet, Fautrier and Wols created powerful cathartic works in the aftermath of the Second World War. In this latest episode of Expert Voices, Sotheby’s specialist Haleigh Stoddard explores how all three artists translated their personal experiences on to canvas, from Fautrier’s abstract ‘Corps d’otage’ and ‘Tête d‘otage N. 15’, to Wols’ powerfully evocative ‘La Turquoise’, and Dubuffet’s vision of hope in ‘La Cavalière au Diamant’.

Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet was a French painter and sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called “low art” and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a more authentic and humanistic approach to image-making. 

Jean Fautrier was a French painter, illustrator, printmaker, and sculptor. He was one of the most important practitioners of Tachisme. 

Wols was the pseudonym of Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze, a German painter and photographer predominantly active in France. Though broadly unrecognized in his lifetime, he is considered a pioneer of lyrical abstraction, one of the most influential artists of the Tachisme movement.