Deer Dance 1946

Anna Barry made Deer Dance, we don't know when, but it is on a sheet measuring 154 x 216mm. It’s a print that feels so graphic, almost flattened, like folk art, with blocky shapes of colour. I’m drawn to the dancers’ costumes with the evergreen boughs tied to their arms, and the antlers sprouting from their heads. It’s a lovely image created with what looks like a limited palette. The colours are earthy, but there's still a vibrancy. Look how the ochre-like background makes the colours pop. The white and the red really sing! I notice the rhythm created with the placement of the dancers. Their bodies are bent, holding sticks which touch the ground. It has echoes of Marsden Hartley, maybe? Or even some of the German Expressionists. There is a kind of shared primitivism that feels so urgent. But really, it is just great printmaking. In the end, we bring our own understanding to a piece like this. Art is a way of seeing and understanding the world. And isn’t that what we all want?