The Intruder 1949

Desmond Morris made this painting called "The Intruder" with a collection of biomorphic shapes painted against a flat sky-blue background. I love imagining Morris, brush in hand, trying to figure out the language of these little beings. The paint is applied smoothly and evenly, no bravura brushstrokes here. It's all about the shapes themselves and what they might mean, right? Look at those floating, jellyfish-like forms in the upper part of the composition. Are they friendly or menacing? I don’t know. Then there’s the two-legged creature in the foreground, reaching up towards the sky. Is it waving hello or trying to defend itself? Morris might have wondered if these shapes were arriving from outer space, or perhaps emerging from the depths of his own imagination. Artists are constantly conversing with one another, building upon ideas, riffing on forms. Ultimately, painting embraces this ambiguity, where meaning is never fixed, and where interpretation is always open to possibility.