L'infinie suffisance 1965

Asger Jorn made this painting, L'infinie suffisance, with what looks like oil paint, though who knows what else might have been mixed in there, to give it that kind of layered, almost clotted feel. The materiality of this piece, it's all about the surface, really. See how the colors – that riot of yellows, reds, blues, and greens – they aren't just sitting there; they’re built up, one on top of the other, so the process is right there on the canvas. The paint's applied in these thick, juicy strokes, almost like he was sculpting with the color. And there’s a lot of black in here that does the work of holding everything together in the composition. If you look at that particular swirl of black paint near the center, it’s like a knot that’s both tying the composition together and threatening to unravel it. Jorn was part of the CoBrA group, and his work often reminds me of Karel Appel, especially in the way he uses bold colors and simple, almost childlike forms to express raw emotion. But in the end, the best paintings leave us with questions, not answers, right?