Suckling Pigs 1963

Ivan Eyre made 'Suckling Pigs', an oil on board painting, sometime during his career. The first thing that hits you is the colour, right? That overall mustardy, almost sickly yellow. It's everywhere. Eyre uses these tight, scratchy marks to build up the texture, giving the whole scene a kind of anxious energy. Look at the way he renders the figures slumped on the ground, all these mournful faces and awkward limbs, it’s really evocative of something like social collapse. There's this little group of piglets suckling away, totally oblivious, and that little detail makes the whole painting kinda weird, in a compelling way. It's like a scene from a dream, or maybe a nightmare. Eyre's got this raw, almost folk-art kind of vibe happening here, reminds me a bit of Ensor, that same sort of unsettling mix of the grotesque and the everyday.