L'Herbe Folle 1972

Evelyne Axell made this painting, L'Herbe Folle, in what looks like flat planes of juicy acrylic. She’s laid out a figure on a bright orange ground under a yellow sky, and surrounded them with big puffy clouds of blue. I like to imagine Axell painting with a sense of freedom and experimentation. She was part of this generation of artists pushing boundaries, right? Like, what if I made a landscape with a nude, and what if I left the glasses just lying there? What was she thinking as she chose these bold, contrasting colors? Is the body in the painting hers? Is it anyone's really? The contours of the shapes are really simplified, right, and the colors so saturated, that you get a strong graphic presence. It reminds me of Alex Katz or even some of the later work of Matisse. Ultimately, painting is about finding your own voice while being in dialogue with the art of the past. It’s a process, a way of thinking and feeling, and hopefully, something that lets us see the world in new ways.