Coyotes Stealing a Pig 1927

This is John Steuart Curry's print, "Coyotes Stealing a Pig," made around 1937. It's a lithograph, meaning it's made by drawing with a greasy crayon onto a flat stone, then using ink to transfer that image onto paper. The stark contrasts and textures come from the lithographic process itself. Look closely, and you can almost feel the grit of the crayon on the stone, the way it grabs the light. The image, with its frantic energy, reminds us of Curry's connection to the Regionalist movement. He aimed to capture the essence of rural American life, and here we see a struggle for survival playing out. It's a scene of labor and the land, where humans, animals, and the elements are all locked in a constant negotiation. The act of making a lithograph itself mirrors this struggle: a direct, physical engagement with the material world to produce an image, imbuing the artwork with a social and cultural significance. It reminds us that even fine art is rooted in process and the realities of everyday life.