The Pure Spirit 1972

Jacques Hérold made this painting, The Pure Spirit, using oil on canvas. The painting feels like a kind of Surrealist garden party! I imagine Hérold building the composition through layers, responding to the emerging forms. There’s a dark figure, but the shapes are ambiguous—are they figures, landscapes, or maybe both? I wonder what it was like for Hérold to make this. The shapes are built up through smooth, deliberate gestures, creating depth and movement. Take that red stroke, for example. It pushes against the green, creating a kind of tension. And look at the way the paint is applied, not too thick, but with a juicy quality that makes you want to touch it. It reminds me of the biomorphic forms you see in Miró or Tanguy, but with its own strange personality. Painters always look at each other, and Hérold’s work is part of that same extended conversation! It’s like they’re all talking to each other across time and space. Painting is just like that; it’s always open to new ways of seeing and feeling.