Otage n°3 1945

Jean Fautrier made "Otage n°3" with a thick impasto of paint, creating a surface that's less about depicting something than about being something. Looking at the texture, the way the paint is built up, it feels almost sculptural. It’s like Fautrier wasn’t just painting an image, but constructing a world of feeling right on the canvas. I'm drawn to the upper left corner. See the way the brown paint almost seems to be dripping? The way the blood-red and brown blend, like the memory of a wound, or of wet earth? Fautrier reminds me a little of Guston, maybe because they both grapple with how to make something beautiful out of something brutal. What I appreciate about Fautrier is that he shows us how art can be about the questions, the search, more than the answers. It’s about embracing the messy, unresolved parts of life.