The Moon and the Animals 1950

Asger Jorn made this expressionistic painting of The Moon and the Animals in oil, and look at how the paint application itself seems like a kind of urgent, almost frantic activity. There’s a real directness to his marks, the paint isn’t trying to hide anything, it’s thick and opaque, and you can almost feel the energy of Jorn’s hand as he built up these layers of colour and texture. Notice how he uses these short, choppy strokes to define the shapes of the animals, giving them this kind of raw, almost primitive quality. There’s one stroke of bright blue right in the eye of the smaller animal, like a flash of insight. It's amazing how Jorn manages to capture the essence of these creatures with such simple, almost childlike forms. You know, looking at this work makes me think of Karel Appel, another CoBrA group artist. Like Appel, Jorn isn’t afraid to embrace the messy, unpredictable side of art-making.