The Pure Spirit 1972

Jacques Hérold made this painting, The Pure Spirit, using oil on canvas. It is a world of dark magic. Hérold's marks are fluid and gestural, like pouring paint or maybe squeezing it from a tube, and this gives the painting an immediate and kind of raw feel. The colors are muted and earthy, with a lot of browns and grays, but there are flashes of bright blue and red that really pop. I'm drawn to the way the figures seem to emerge from the background. There's a sense of layering and blending, like the artist was building up the image over time, letting each layer inform the next. The surface is smooth in some areas and textured in others. It is as if you can feel the artist's hand moving across the canvas. It reminds me a bit of Roberto Matta, another surrealist who was interested in exploring the subconscious. In the end it's all about feeling and letting go of control.