Untitled from The Old Man and the Sea

John BellanyWW-1987-M076180

1987·Etching from a portfolio of ten etchings and four screenprints·plate: 12 3/4 × 18 13/16" (32.4 × 47.8 cm); sheet: 22 5/16 × 29 5/8" (56.6 × 75.2 cm)

Catalogue

Year: 1987
Medium: Etching from a portfolio of ten etchings and four screenprints
Dimensions: plate: 12 3/4 × 18 13/16" (32.4 × 47.8 cm); sheet: 22 5/16 × 29 5/8" (56.6 × 75.2 cm)
Collection: Museum of Modern Art
Artist: John Bellany

Artist

John Bellany

Painting

John Bellany was a British painter whose monumental figurative works addressed trauma, mortality, and collective memory in the postwar era. Working primarily in oil on canvas, he developed a gestural, expressionistic approach marked by distorted human forms and densely layered surfaces that evoked both classical tradition and raw emotional urgency. His large-scale paintings often incorporated mythological and biblical references alongside contemporary social commentary. Bellany's work engaged with the psychological and physical legacies of conflict and displacement in mid-to-late twentieth-century Europe.

Port Seton, UK

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