Sitting Figure with Folded Hands 1933

Meret Oppenheim made this painting, Sitting Figure with Folded Hands, with what looks like simple strokes, but there’s a lot going on beneath the surface. The way she lays down the paint, it's not about perfection, but about a process of feeling and seeing. Look at the hands, like little squiggles, sitting so calmly at the bottom. They’re almost cartoonish, but they hold this weight of contemplation. And the surface, it's not smooth or blended. You can see each brushstroke, each decision, laid bare. The colors, they’re muted, but there’s a tension there, a quiet energy that hums beneath the surface. The paint itself seems thin, almost translucent in places. There’s a conversation here between the absurd and the profound. It puts me in mind of outsider art, like Adolf Wölfli, who also found ways to make something very personal into something universal. It's like she’s inviting us to bring our own stories, our own interpretations, to the table.