Untitled 1931

Jacques Hérold made this ink drawing of strange flora and fauna, probably sometime in the mid-20th century. Just look at how Hérold uses line! It’s scratchy, delicate, and a little bit spooky. It feels like he's channeling another world, maybe one just beneath the surface of our own. I love the way the thin lines build up the forms, giving them a kind of shimmering, ethereal quality. Check out the mushroom on the right side, perched on that slender, curving stem. It is like a little alien head, isn't it? And the ground beneath is all wavy lines, like the earth itself is breathing. It is almost as if the pen was just led by the hand, a kind of automatic drawing maybe? Hérold was part of the Surrealist movement, along with artists like Miró and Ernst, who were also interested in exploring the unconscious mind. This piece makes me think a bit of the drawings of Hilma af Klint – not that they look similar, but they both seem to be reaching for something beyond what we can see. So, what do you see here? A garden? A dream? Maybe it’s a bit of both.