Carré de couleurs 1960

Jean Fautrier made ‘Carré de couleurs’ with oil paint. Looking at how the paint is laid on, it’s clear that he wasn’t trying to hide the process, but instead embracing it. The surface is built up, thick and crusty, with layers that feel almost like a relief. There’s a real physicality to the medium, you can practically feel the weight of the paint. Notice those horizontal strokes of gray, they’re like bars holding everything together, or maybe they’re dissolving, blurring the edges. And then there’s that square of color, a mosaic of purples, yellows, and blacks. Each little block feels deliberate, but also accidental, like a tiny experiment in color and texture. It reminds me of the work of Antoni Tàpies, who also played with texture and materiality in such an expressive way. Art is just an ongoing conversation, right? A way of seeing, of feeling, of thinking. It is not about fixed definitions.