Untitled

In the mid-1940s, Jean-Paul Mousseau worked primarily with paper, gouache, watercolour, and ink— the cost of materials being a considerable issue at the time. His works from 1947 embody a strange and disturbing atmosphere in which mysterious landscapes merge with exotic flora and fauna; the artist’s vivid imagination is on full display. At twenty, Mousseau was the youngest member of the Automatistes and also the group’s most fervent disciple of Surrealism and Dada, a trend that is quite apparent in this period of work. In Untitled (c. 1947), he deftly combines pen and ink with newspaper clippings, cut-out photographs, and delicate swatches of cloth. The resulting collage is a skillful assemblage of biomorphic and embryonic motifs; what appears to be a human heart is suddenly a coral reef. The composition is superbly executed. With its skillfully layered and finely drawn forms, Untitled embodies the spirit and mastery of Cubist collage.