Serpent de mer 1955

Rene Duvillier made this artwork, Serpent de mer, with brushstrokes of moody, dark violet and a touch of turquoise, maybe it was ink or gouache on paper? Looking at this, I think about the artist being lost in the act of creation. I see the artist, Duvillier, feeling his way through the image. He’s working intuitively, allowing the forms to emerge and evolve with each stroke, each mark, each color shift. The way the violet bleeds into the paper gives the forms a sense of depth. The forms themselves are ambiguous. I can see creatures dancing and writhing on the page! I bet Duvillier had some kind of plan, but I imagine that this plan changed as he went along. We know that artists are in an ongoing conversation, influencing and inspiring one another across time. In the end, this artwork is an invitation to embrace ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple readings and meaning, over any one fixed reading.