Author Mark Haddon on The Busy Life by Jean Dubuffet Author and artist Mark Haddon, best known for his novel ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’, came to Tate Modern to look at one of his favourite paintings: The Busy Life 1953 by Jean Dubuffet. This work belongs to a series that Dubuffet called ‘beaten pastes’ because the main paint layer resembled butter, into which he scratched the graffiti-like figures. In this film, Haddon shares his love for Dubuffet’s technique: a celebration of mark-making and texture.