Studies van een zeug met biggen 1915

Rik Wouters made this study of a sow with piglets with ink on paper. I can just imagine him crouched in a barn somewhere in Belgium with the smell of the animals all around. He’s captured the lazy, sleepy forms of these pigs with the bare minimum of lines. It’s amazing how much he suggests with so little. Look at the way he’s drawn the snouts – just a few flicks of the brush, and you can practically hear them snuffling! You know, it reminds me a little of some drawings by Picasso. I can see Wouters experimenting here, trying to distill the essence of his subject. Artists are always looking at each other’s work, picking up ideas, pushing them in new directions. It’s like one big conversation that goes on across time and space. For me, painting is about embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple readings, so I'm left wondering what Wouters was really trying to capture.