Groupe de Quatre Arbres / Group of Four Trees Sculpture at Chase Plaza

Artist: Jean Dubuffet

Commissioner: David Rockefeller

Date: Installed, 1972

This piece is made of fiberglass composite and is supported by stainless steel tubing.

The work is a monumental sculpture 14 m high, made of epoxy resin resting on an aluminum structure, itself covering a steel frame; the whole is painted with polyurethane. In a rather abstract form, the tree trunks are suggested by four vertical structures, resting on the ground; the foliage is made up of more or less horizontal planes, located at various levels, connecting the entire structure. Belonging to the L'Hourloupe cycle, the sculpture is painted with a white background, the edges marked with a black line.

The sculpture was commissioned by businessman David Rockefeller, in 1969, for the New York headquarters of the newly established Chase Manhattan Bank; for Jean Dubuffet, this is the first order for a monumental sculpture. The artist produced several models in 1970; he designs the sculpture selected in his new workshops in Périgny, France. The work is then delivered in more than a dozen pieces to New York and reassembled by the artist, helped by five assistants 3 . The work is inaugurated in New York on October 24, 1972.