Objet subjectivité 1957

Victor Brauner made this painting, Objet subjectivité, probably in 1957, with oil on canvas. Look at this strange symmetrical head floating in a mottled tan field. It’s as if the subject emerged layer by layer, through intuition. I can feel the artist playing with geometric shapes. Two squares construct a face with almond-shaped eyes and a shocking red mouth. I wonder what Brauner was thinking when he made this. Perhaps he was having a conversation with the Cubists, maybe Picasso or Braque. There’s a material quality to the paint; it’s applied thinly, allowing the texture of the canvas to peek through. The colour gives the work its mood, a calming neutral broken by tiny black speckles. Painters, we’re all looking at each other's work, across time, inspiring each other. Painting is an embodied expression; there's no one way to read a painting, but infinite meanings and possibilities!