Life Is So Complex 1966

Martial Raysse made this graphic image, "Life Is So Complex", and it really packs a punch. The high contrast palette and strong lines are so immediate. I'm thinking of artmaking as a process of layering and resolving, but here, Raysse does away with all of that! The blocks of black and white, with the occasional pop of red, make you feel like you are looking at a fragmented billboard. The texture is smooth, the paint thin, and any trace of the artist's hand is gone. My eye keeps going back to the set of eyes in the lower right, they seem so heavy and weighed down. The small trails of black paint beneath them feel like tears, or maybe just smudged eyeliner. The hard edges and bold colors make me think of other pop artists like James Rosenquist, who was also playing with fragmentation and advertising. These artists remind us that art is always in conversation, and that "complexity" can be found in the most direct of images.