Death Can Be Fat 1964

Sid Hammer made this intaglio print, Death Can Be Fat, in 1964, conjuring up death in a somber palette of blacks, whites, and grays. I can imagine him hunched over the plate, head in his hands, obsessively scratching and digging into the surface with tools, pulling lines this way and that. He must have been thinking about mortality and the human condition, turning these heavy thoughts into physical marks. I am struck by the image's brutal honesty and raw energy. A series of gestural marks carve out a skeleton that is fleshy and weighty, challenging conventional ideas about death and the body. There's a sense of urgency and immediacy, as if Hammer was wrestling with something profound, maybe even something difficult. His mark-making possesses a visceral quality that resonates with the expressive and existential concerns of artists like Munch and Ensor. Painting and printmaking can be a sort of conversation across time, you know, with artists speaking to one another through their work, offering new perspectives and challenging old assumptions.