Art O'Clock

Jed Perl on Jean Hélion‘s Le Goûter:

“Not everything Hélion did succeeded. That was in the nature of his experimental method. [. . .] The work of the 1950s and early 1960s, when Helion turned first to a sharp-focus realism and later to more painterly, atmospheric effects, sometimes lacks the intellectual playfulness that is such a pleasure in so many of his compositions. But I wouldn't want to do without Le Goûter (Afternoon Tea, 1953), an interior rendered with the insistence of a sixteenth-century Flemish master, in which the late afternoon meal doubles as the revelation of a love affair, with the two teacups, the cut bread, the open tin of fish, and the bottle of wine accompanied by the dishabille of a high heel, a woman's slip, and a pair of pants.”

MUKLUKS: Xmastime #1 author, Eric Kraft