In 1918, aged 17, Jean Dubuffet gave up studying painting at the prestigious Academie Julian - to learn the subject independently. In 1924 he quit art entirely, to join his father's wine business. And in 1933 he started making puppets and masks.

It was only in 1945 that he returned to painting, where he became famous for his technique of using whatever elements came to hand - whether tar, gravel or butterfly wings. He said of this method: "art should be born from the materials and, spiritually, should borrow its language from it. Each material has its own language so there is no need to make it serve a language."

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