Surenes 1952

Asger Jorn's "Surenes" is this riotous assembly of figures conjured with oil on canvas. The colors are brash and joyful, like a kid got into the paint box and just went for it. It feels like Jorn’s allowing the painting to happen, you know? Looking closely, the paint is thick and juicy, almost sculptural. There’s this brown figure, towards the front, with a bright blue eye. It’s so direct, innocent even. But then, the form itself is so raw. It’s like Jorn's wrestling with the image, trying to pin down something primal. You can practically see the movement of the brush, the speed of his hand. Jorn reminds me of Dubuffet, actually – that same embrace of the crude, the unfiltered. But while Dubuffet was all about the surface, Jorn seems to be digging deeper, into some collective unconscious. It's art that doesn't try to be pretty, it just *is*.