Feather-Like Motif

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

The German-born artist Wols created this small gouache-and-pen image while living an increasingly chaotic life in the charged cultural milieu of postwar Paris. Per the title, the central motif is quasi-abstract: feather-like, but not a feather. It has a vertical stem that blooms into a dark core and radiates hairy black lines; watery circles and irregular polygons spangle the composition. The myopic confrontation of this motif recalls Wols's quotation of the famous existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre, his occasional supporter: "Objects shouldn't touch, for they do not live. And yet they touch me: It's unbearable."

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