Le Jour de l'Âme

Different to the sheets of the series Oiseaux, the works entitled Le Jour de l'Âme (The Day of the Soul) as shown on the following pages do not refer to any literary inspiration. Each of them varies the traditional subject nude and interior well known from the history of art, so the series can be said to be arisen from a mere artistic problem. As you can see on the following pages, this problem is treated with consciousness and a virtuoso limitation of the artistic means. Space and spatial impression result only from the subtle arrangement of textured planes which for themselves do not suggest any thought of three-dimensional expansion to the viewer. Unless the female body is placed amongst them, the planes' proportions might not be interpreted as spatial ones and neither might the planes themselves be seen as walls, windows and floors. At least it is the subtle relation of space and body that articulates the états de l'âme, which fill the day and have been chosen as the subject of this series of lino-cuts to be partially presented here.