Obscure rencontre 

Léonor Fini made this painting, "Obscure rencontre," with oil paint. It is a traditional material, but here she's deployed it in a decidedly unconventional way. The material itself, oil paint, allows for this kind of building up and scraping away. See how she's drawn out forms from what seems to be a chaotic mass of pigment? She allows the material to speak and inform what is depicted. Her technique seems to be one of constant adjustment, constantly reworking the surface. It’s not about easy virtuosity, it's about allowing the material to breathe and be alive. Fini’s technique challenges the traditional notion of painting as a purely visual art. Instead, it embraces materiality and process, underscoring the relationship between the artwork, the artist's hand, and the very substance from which it is made. This convergence elevates the status of craft within fine art, asking us to consider the value of the artist's labor.