Rouault–Master of Dissonance

Abstract

ROUAULT'S work is the happy result of an originale with a sound technical background.His sonorous dissonances are irresistible to any art lover who craves in art something akin to musical vibration. The patterns he creates have the quality of beautiful, unearthly sounds coming up from some dark underworld. Only an individual with a rich subconscious could produce such fascinating visual designs. Talk about the surrealists! Rouault is the real surrealist. His work has the assurance of our subconscious desires whose laws are absolute. One feels it is predestined. It could not have been different. How thin and affected appear in contrast the efforts of that group of artists who have arrogated to themselves the title, “surrealist”! To anyone who has had the pleasure of being exposed to Rouault's work, the productions of the members of this group seem like the frivolous play of academics. And is it possible to conceive of anything more boring than the academic mind in a playful mood? They are not unlike barnyard fowls trying to soar. Of course there are men like Klee whose bizarre work has an authentic charm that comes from impulses that are real, if febrile. But, though interesting, how thin and precious his work seems beside that of Rouault! These apparitions which Rouault has created are real bogey men, not mere opera bouffe scarecrows. They are authentic nightmares with all the terror and tragic quality of that product of our subconscious.