Septième sens 1948

Victor Brauner made this painting, Septième sens, with oil on board at some point in his career. It’s a wild one, right? The colour palette is bold: reds, greens, blues, yellows all crammed in there, with these characters interlinked, maybe fighting, maybe embracing. Look at the surface, it's thick with paint, so textured you could almost reach out and touch it. The brushwork is visible, not trying to hide itself. I love when you can see the artist's hand in the work. Notice how the green and blue heads seem to be connected by the snake that one of them is holding? Its body is like a line drawing, so simple yet so effective. Brauner's figures have this cartoonish quality, but it's also deeply serious, almost spiritual. Brauner was a surrealist, and his work often explores themes of mythology, symbolism, and the unconscious mind. I’m reminded a little of Philip Guston, in the way he was able to create such powerful work out of what looks at first glance to be a fairly simple set of shapes and forms. Art's not about answers, is it? It's about the questions.