Le Calme des Passions n°15 1974

Jules Perahim made "Le Calme des Passions n°15" with oil on canvas, and there is a real joy in his slightly off-kilter, kind of surreal sensibility. There's something so satisfying about the textural contrast, like the knobbly texture of the creatures. The marks making up the 'hair' or 'fur' remind me of a pointillist painting. All those tiny dots create a surprisingly tactile feel, like you could reach out and touch it. And then there's the smoothness of the humanoid figure, almost machine-like in its perfection, juxtaposed with the wildness of the other forms. Look at the curious figure in the middle, a kind of totemic character, with its geometric head and that strange, spiraling neck. It's both familiar and utterly alien. Perahim’s work has echoes of Max Ernst with its dreamlike imagery, but it’s uniquely his own. The painting invites you to embrace ambiguity and find your own story within its playful, enigmatic forms.