La Victoire de l'Inevitable 1970

This painting by Jules Perahim, whose title translates as ‘The Victory of the Inevitable’, makes me think about the struggles we face when trying to put something down on canvas. The painting seems to show a figure made of drips, a melting figure or maybe a statue – perhaps she is a goddess? – watching over soldiers charging from a cliff. I bet Jules was thinking a lot about the surrealists when he made this. He’s smudging figures as if in a dream or a nightmare. The way he’s applied the paint here is really interesting, right? It’s like he’s letting the paint do its thing, allowing it to run and blend together. The figure is yellow with hints of green and brown, as if she’s emerging from the earth itself. And then you've got the soldiers, silhouetted against the sky, charging forward into an uncertain future. As a painter, I'm always drawn to these kinds of paintings. I like to think about the push and pull between control and chance, intention and accident. It’s like Jules Perahim is saying, "Here, I’m making a mess, but there is a structure emerging from it.”