Fallen Figure 1939

Jean Helion made this painting, Fallen Figure, with oil paint. It’s full of geometric forms and cool colors with accents of peach. I can just imagine Helion, brush in hand, circling and assessing. He steps forward, makes a mark, steps back, squints, and then lunges forward again! I wonder how he arrived at these forms and this odd juxtaposition of hard lines with soft volumes, as if he’s reimagining what it means to be a body. And that deep purple hovering on top gives it all a melancholic air. Helion, like so many painters, is in conversation with a whole lineage of artists, wrestling with the same problems and questions, adding his own, like, what does it mean to be a fallen figure? Perhaps it is a study of how we fall apart but still make up a whole. I think it’s pretty great.