Suicide 1995

Sarunas Sauka made this painting called ‘Suicide’ with oil paint, and the date is unknown. Look at the fleshy tones, almost like the scene is lit by sickly candlelight. The paint handling is really interesting, it looks like he’s built up these layers and layers of glazes, so the figures almost seem to be emerging from the canvas. There's a real sense of density. It's like the figures are packed in tight, no room to breathe. Take a closer look at the guy in the bottom right with the red and pink legs, his pose is so stiff and unnatural, it’s like a puppet master has abandoned him halfway through the show. The colors he uses are kind of nauseating, and that's part of the point I think. I see echoes of Ensor and Beckmann here, in the claustrophobia and the grotesquery. But maybe Goya too, with the darkness and the sense of moral decay. It feels like he’s trying to show us something about the human condition, something that’s not always pretty.