Mutation de la Natalie 1957

Victor Brauner made 'Mutation de la Natalie' with oil on board sometime in the mid-twentieth century. I'm drawn to the way Brauner fearlessly uses color and form to create a figure that is both familiar and utterly strange, and it feels as though the process of painting was key to understanding this image. The surface is alive with texture; you can almost feel the push and pull of the brushstrokes. Look at the area around the figure's head – see how the white paint is layered over the yellow, creating a sense of depth and movement? There is also a lot of exposed canvas, visible in the yellow background, so there is a dialogue of adding and taking away. The two different coloured eyes create a surreal, almost unsettling effect, as does the two-pronged head-dress, which makes you wonder if this figure is real, imagined, or maybe both at once. Brauner reminds me a bit of Philip Guston, actually, in his willingness to embrace the grotesque and the absurd. Both artists invite us to see the world in a new light and revel in ambiguity.