Untitled 1950

Gaston Chaissac painted this untitled piece in March 1950, and it feels like a really fresh approach to image making. There's something so raw about the way Chaissac builds this figure out of simple shapes and lines. The colors are flat, almost like cutouts, and the black outlines give it a kind of graphic punch. Look at that face, how it's both a profile and a frontal view at the same time, like a Picasso! The surface is matte, no glossy sheen here, which makes it feel immediate, like it was made right in front of you. And that little heart floating near the head? Such a simple touch, but it adds so much tenderness to the whole thing. Chaissac reminds me a bit of Dubuffet, in that he wasn't afraid to embrace the so-called "primitive" in his work. But unlike Dubuffet, there's a lightness here, a sense of playfulness that's totally unique. It’s like he’s saying, “Hey, art doesn’t have to be so serious, it can just be fun.”