Ram's Head (facing left) 1968

Graham Sutherland made this image of a Ram's Head in 1968 using lithography, and I can really imagine him working on the plate for this print. The marks are so expressive, and the colors are like they've been dug up from the earth: ochre and black, giving it a kind of raw, primal feel. I get the sense that Sutherland was really thinking about the animal, its power, its aggression. And maybe something about the animal's vulnerability too? The way he's rendered the eye makes me feel a little uneasy. But it’s the texture that gets me: the way he's built up the tones to give the ram this formidable presence. It reminds me of some of Goya's darker works – this sense of something untamed and elemental. Painters are always looking at each other, across time, riffing off each other's ideas and techniques. It’s all one big conversation, and we get to listen in. Each mark is like a little thought, a little feeling, made visible. It invites us to slow down, look closely, and maybe find something of ourselves in the process.