Nature morte 1955

Bernard Buffet made this still life, “Nature Morte”, in 1955 using a thin, scratchy style and a very limited palette of greens, yellows, browns, and blacks. It feels like he's searching for the forms, etching them into the paper with nervous energy. For me, this is a great example of artmaking as a process, revealing more than concealing. The overall texture is rough, and the lines are raw and exposed. Take the background, for example, those thin, almost frantic black lines layered over the yellow create a vibrating surface. The brushstrokes aren’t blended, they are left visible. It’s like Buffet wants us to see every step of the way. Those fried eggs are so simple, just a quick dab of brown for the yolk, but they speak volumes. It's a very human and immediate approach. Buffet reminds me a bit of Picasso in his economical style, both understood the power of suggestion, letting the viewer fill in the gaps. "Nature Morte" invites us to appreciate the beauty in the imperfect, the unfinished, and the transient.