AustLit

Author's note: This work of literature was commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria and performed in its contemporary art section in March 2002. It creates narrative reference points for the painting Arabe au Burnous (1948) by Jean Dubuffet. The protagonist in the work is based loosely on Albert Tucker, who accidently came across Dubuffet's work at the Foyer de L'Art Brut in 1948. Dubuffet's twelve Sahara paintings of 1948, of which Arabe au burnous was one, were nevr actually exhibited together as a series. I have taken the liberty of hanging them all together in the one space for the sake of the story.