A Time For Fear by Jimmy Ernst (1949)

A jagged figure crouches against a fractured ground. This is Jimmy Ernst’s *A Time For Fear*, painted in 1949. Charcoal scribbles lock the figure in place, its limbs reduced to sharp angles. Behind it, the background splits into blocks of slate gray, raw umber, and a single slash of cadmium red. The paint is thin in places, thick in others, letting the canvas texture push through like scar tissue. Hang it where morning light glances off the frame—above a mid-century credenza or beside a narrow hallway that needs a jolt of quiet tension.