Jean Dubuffet et la Tour aux figures, une aventure monumentale

Exhibition at the Musée Français de la Carte à Jouer, Issy-les-Moulineaux, 3 December 2025 - 28 June 2026

Jean Dubuffet's (1901-1985) La Tour aux figures (The Tower of Figures) is a major milestone in monumental art in public spaces in France. An iconic work by an unclassifiable artist who plays with codes and conventions, it is the result of visionary thinking and artistic skill of remarkable precision, demonstrating art's ability to transform urban spaces.

This achievement, now fully recognised, was questioned at the time, before a final location was approved in Issy-les-Moulineaux, at the stern of Île Saint-Germain. Now a protected and restored monument, La Tour aux figures bears witness to Jean Dubuffet's desire to ‘show the world differently’.

This catalogue of the exhibition organised to mark the 40th anniversary of the installation of La Tour aux figures in Issy-les-Moulineaux traces the history of the work from its conception in July 1967 in the form of a model to its monumental realisation in 1988. It brings together a large selection of works, archives and documents, some of which are unpublished, from the collections of the Fondation Dubuffet.