Le droit d’aigle 1950

Asger Jorn made this painting, 'Le droit d’aigle', with oil on canvas using a heavy impasto technique. The layers of paint are built up so thickly that you can practically feel the weight of each stroke. Up close, the surface is a topography of texture, with peaks and valleys of black paint punctuated by flashes of red and white. The crude, almost brutal application of paint suggests a raw, unfiltered expression, Jorn's process feels immediate and unrehearsed. Look at the way the eyes are rendered—they're not just painted, they're sculpted with paint, giving them a life of their own. Jorn’s work shares some of the same energy as the work of Francis Bacon, especially in their shared interest in expressing the raw, untamed aspects of human emotion through distorted figures and visceral brushwork. Ultimately, Jorn invites us to embrace ambiguity, to find meaning not in clear representation but in the emotional resonance of the painted surface.