Serpent de mer 1955

This drawing, Serpent de mer by Rene Duvillier, features purple lines dancing on a white ground. I imagine Duvillier making it, maybe with a brush or marker, letting the lines loop and swoop with a life of their own. That purple is so alive, isn’t it? It’s like he's trying to catch some kind of movement, like a gesture you see out of the corner of your eye, or a thought that’s just forming. The single horizontal line cutting through the middle, maybe that’s the sea part, grounding the fantasy. And the gold hatching? Delicious. It makes me think of Miro, or maybe Twombly, just letting marks be marks, floating in space. It's about letting go, trusting your hand, and seeing what happens. That's what painting's all about, right? A conversation with yourself, with the materials, and with all the artists who came before.