Hibou-Circus I (rotated)

Step up close to this canvas and you can almost feel the weight of the paint. Jean-Paul Riopelle, a Canadian artist from Quebec, was famous for laying his colors on thick, often using a palette knife instead of a brush. He would press, scrape, and build up the surface until it looked less like a flat picture and more like a landscape carved from oil paint. The result is a busy mosaic of grays, whites, blacks, and sudden flashes of red and green that seem to crackle with energy.

Riopelle was part of a Canadian group called the Automatistes, who liked to paint without planning too much ahead, letting instinct guide the work. By 1973, when he made this piece, he had spent years splitting his time between Paris and Quebec, soaking up influences from the wild abstract movements of the day. The title hints at an owl and a circus, though you might not spot either one. That is part of the fun here. Rather than showing you a clear scene, the painting invites you to wander through its tangled textures and find your own shapes hiding in the chaos.