L'animal Manuel 1943

Victor Brauner, sometime in the mid-century, rendered this strange mythological creature in oil on canvas, a painting called "L'animal Manuel." There's a real otherworldliness to this odd coupling of figures—the colors are muted, almost dusty, and the forms are flattened, stylized, like something you'd see on an ancient fresco. I love the disjunction between the fish-like creature with the human face and the pale nude figure it seems to be devouring, or maybe birthing! Brauner's got such a unique visual language, it's tempting to think about what he might have been thinking when he put brush to canvas. Was he tapping into some subconscious wellspring of archetypes, or was he just having a bit of fun? The fish is eating the person but the person appears to be relaxed about it, there is a calmness to the scene. There is a dialogue between the artists that have come before and this weird scene! The history of painting is so full of these kinds of exchanges, where artists riff off each other's ideas, pushing the boundaries of what's possible. And in the end, that's what keeps it all alive, don't you think?