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The Screeching Gannett

John BellanyWW-1987-014923

1987·Oil on canvas·68 x 68 in. (172.7 x 172.7 cm)

Purchase, Roy R. and Marie S. Neuberger Foundation Inc. Gift, 1988

Catalogue

Year: 1987
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 68 x 68 in. (172.7 x 172.7 cm)
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of 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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