Hibou-Circus II (rotated)

Ridges and grooves of paint cover this canvas so thickly that the surface almost becomes a landscape of its own. Jean-Paul Riopelle, the Canadian artist who made it in 1973, rarely reached for a brush. Instead he worked with a palette knife, scooping up color and pressing it down in quick, deliberate strokes. The result is a tangle of grays and blacks broken up by sudden flashes of red, blue, yellow, and green, little bursts that glint like bits of colored glass wedged into the cracks.

The title "Hibou-Circus" points to an owl, a bird Riopelle came back to again and again in his later years. Spotting the creature here is not easy, and honestly you may not find it at all, but that is part of the fun. Riopelle spent much of his life in France, where abstract painting was buzzing with new ideas, and he became one of Canada's most respected artists of his century. Rather than telling a clear story, this work simply hands you the energy of its own making and lets you trace the marks his knife left behind.