Ouarzazate 1971

Olivier Debre made Ouarzazate with paint, probably oil on canvas, and it’s giving me the sense that the canvas was lying flat as he worked. There’s a real process at play here, the paint looks thin in places but there’s also areas where it’s built up, like that dollop of green at the right, with these really visible brushstrokes that make you think about the movement of his hand. Then that pale pink that dominates the centre feels like it’s been dragged across the surface, almost like a squeegee. I’m feeling a landscape here, maybe he was thinking about the sky and the earth. There’s a real rawness to the painting, the edges are messy and unresolved, but somehow that makes it more engaging. Debre reminds me a bit of Joan Mitchell, you know, that same kind of abstract expressionist energy, but with a more muted palette. Ultimately, this piece embraces uncertainty, inviting us to find our own meanings and connections within its fluid forms.