They Run 1964

Sid Hammer made this etching, "They Run", in 1964, with incredible energy and speed. I can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the plate, digging in, pulling back, as if chasing the figures he’s drawing. Hammer’s use of line is raw and immediate; it’s like he’s trying to capture the essence of movement, the sheer panic and urgency of running. The figures are skeletal, ephemeral, as if they might dissolve into the night at any moment. Look at the way he suggests form with just a few strokes – the curve of a back, the angle of a leg. And those blank, egg-shaped heads! They give the image a haunting, otherworldly quality, like beings from a dream. I imagine Hammer wrestling with this image, pushing and pulling at the lines until they yielded this incredible scene. He’s in conversation with Goya and Guston, maybe even Giacometti. Painting is all about artists borrowing and building upon one another’s language, it’s about embracing the unfinished and the unresolved, and letting the work speak in its own, imperfect way.