Heads 1939

Jacques Hérold painted "Heads," using oil paint on canvas, a traditional pairing that allowed him to build up layers of luminous color. Looking closely, you can see the artist’s hand in the brushwork. Hérold favored thin layers of paint to create a visual dialogue between form and background, which results in a dreamlike effect. The surrealists often used the term "psychic automatism" to describe their process, which, although sounding rather mechanized, emphasized intuition and the unconscious. For Hérold, this meant experimenting with the fluid possibilities of oil paint to discover forms, rather than following a pre-planned composition. While the artwork's meaning is elusive, its tactile presence is undeniable. The material qualities of the paint itself become expressive, inviting us to consider the artist's process and the inherent qualities of his medium. This emphasis on making challenges the conventional hierarchy between the fine arts and more materially-focused practices like craft and design.