King in Bedlam 1996

Jörg Immendorff made this painting, King in Bedlam, using oil paint. Look at the browns and blacks that swirl around the central figure, a really gutsy color palette. The painting has so much to look at; it's like a visual feast, a dense layering of meaning and imagery. The surface is so worked, it feels like the paint has been scrubbed and worried into the canvas. Take that figure in the foreground, the king, he's both there and not there, solid and ephemeral. The layering of figures reminds me of James Ensor, who similarly didn't shy away from filling every inch of his canvases. What does it mean to be a 'King in Bedlam'? Immendorff invites us to contemplate these contradictions. Like all good art, it's a conversation, a question posed, a mirror held up to our own perceptions and assumptions.