The Fisherman 1957

Victor Brauner made "The Fisherman," in 1957, using oil on board, and its fractured form is quite something. The whole image is divided into geometric sections like a wonky stained glass window, or maybe a cubist collage that's been flattened out. Brauner lays down these earthy, muted tones, ochres and faded blues, with the textures of the board showing through the paint, so it feels really immediate. You get the sense that he's scratching and layering, building up this image piece by piece. Look at the fisherman’s single eye! It’s not round but more of a vertical slit, like a keyhole to some other dimension. It pulls you in and makes you wonder what this figure sees, what he knows. Brauner was part of the Surrealist movement, along with artists like Miro and Ernst, and you can see that shared interest in dreamlike imagery. All of them are riffing on the ambiguity that art can embrace.