Untitled 1931

Jacques Hérold made this untitled drawing with pen and ink. The tan paper is covered with curious forms and objects, like a fever dream of life. The line varies in pressure and pace, sometimes halting, sometimes more confident and fluid. It’s like automatic writing, where the hand moves on its own, yet the artist is directing the flow. I imagine Hérold letting his mind wander, making these floating shapes in space, then grounding them with those contour lines that suggest a landscape. There's a strange contrast between the more controlled mark-making of the landscape and the freer rendering of these odd plants and creatures. Like Max Ernst, he was a Surrealist, so he was interested in the subconscious and the bizarre. Drawing is like that. You start, you respond, you keep going. Artists are always looking at each other's work, borrowing ideas, building on the past, trying to conjure something new. It’s a conversation across time. And like any good conversation, there’s always room for uncertainty and surprise.