Racine du pré-vivant reflects Brauner’s lifelong fascination with what has been termed the ‘primitive’ aesthetic. His interest stemmed primarily from the ritual and symbolic qualities he saw as being inherent to the art of ancient Egypt and the tribal works of Africa. It was these qualities that Brauner sought to reflect in his work and can be found in paintings such as the present. The clear delineation of line combined with the reduction of the figure to its most essential, and yet still abstracted, form demonstrates this interest in the symbolic qualities of ancient art. The earthy colour palette recalls the early paintings found in the Lascaux caves, and yet a single tear drop of red draws the eye to the heart of the picture and introduces a Surreal, almost mystical aura.

Executed on an impressive scale, Racine du pré-vivant exudes a monumental universality. The figure in the lower half of the composition is interlinked with an ambiguous form, suggestive of the hybrid animal creatures that often recur throughout Brauner’s œuvre. The interconnectivity of the forms, as one stems from another, echoes the work’s mysterious title and hints towards meaning lying just out of reach. Liberated from the constraints of the European painting tradition and steeped in Symbolism, Racine du pré-vivant offers an alternate lens through which one can view the world. The dynamic arrangement of non-naturalistic shapes, eschews preconceived notions concerning visual representation and epitomises Brauner’s aesthetic vision: ‘Shapes or forms will, each, find its own mate, and will introduce themselves to the tiniest fraction of time—that brow which, nothing could possibly exist without disappearing forever, that is, the kind of time wherein forms or space even, become alive’ (Brauner quoted in, Victor Brauner (exhibition catalogue), Paris, 1972, p. 108).