Déborah Lehot-Couette about Slavko Kopac

Summer 1985. Vence was drenched in the colours of Jean Dubuffet and Slavko Kopac. The summer program at Galerie Chave was entirely given over to an exhibition of works by the two artists, whom the gallery had represented since the 1950s, with the planned eponymous title Jean Dubuffet et Slavko Kopac. This utterly simple – andaccurate – title was rethought a few weeks before the opening. 

The show’s vernissage, on 13 July, the eve of France’s national holiday, took place without Dubuffet, who had died on 12 May. Galerie Chave and Slavko Kopac came together to honour him one last time, and the show was renamed Salut ŕ Jean Dubuffet. 

It was accompanied by a catalogue whose cover – improvised, illustrated, and laid out by Kopac – attested to the friendship and artistic relationship that had existed between the two men. The sense of homage attributed retrospectively to the exhibition made it a historic event. In reality, though, things had played out well beforehand. Dubuffet was a solitary artist. Throughout his life, he refused to have his works displayed alongside works that he had not produced. He never accepted offers to join group exhibitions, nor did he agree to have his works included in four-, three-, or even two-artist shows; his stipulation to museums and galleries was that his exhibitions feature his works exclusively. 

Therefore, the show that Pierre Chave had put together was exceptional: for the first time, Dubuffet was allowing his work to be seen in dialogue with work by another artist. It must be said that Kopac was not just any artist. Not only had he produced a body of work that Dubuffet admired and promoted, but he was also the one whom Dubuffet had trusted unconditionally to organise and manage his most valuable asset: his collection of Art Brut works.
 

Dubuffet’s approval of this exhibition project presented such an extraordinary opportunity that Chave had his letter of agreement reproduced in the front pages of the exhibition catalogue. Nor did the letter escape the attention of journalists, who used it to claim that Kopac was ‘Dubuffet’s darling’. Dubuffet accepted the project on condition that Kopac also agreed. L ike D ubuffet, Kopac was not thrilled to have his work subjected to artistic confrontations. In a 1982 interview, he confided, ‘I don’t like to be compared to anyone, not even Dubuffet, although I feel very attached to him’. Two years later, Kopac nevertheless agreed, unhesitatingly, to the joint exhibition with Dubuffet, for whom he felt sincere affection and recognition.

From the book accompanying the exhibition Slavko Kopac: The Hidden Treasure. Informal Art, Surrealism, Art Brut., 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2025

Read the full essay in the book available at the link provided below:

https://www.fivecontinentseditions.com/en/p/slavko-kopac/