35mm slide scanned by Ed Pollard-2011. Photo by Scott Wolf.

Repression

Artist/Maker Camille Eskell (American, 1954-)

Date1984

MediumOil pastel | Paper

DimensionsOverall, Image: 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
Overall, Support: 48 x 38 in. (121.9 x 96.5 cm)

ClassificationsContemporary art

Credit LineGift of the family of Joel B. Cooper, in memory of Mary and Dudley Cooper

Object number2002.26.6

Terms

Demons
cemeteries
Baby
Babies
Man
Gravestones
Black
White

On View

Not on view

DescriptionThis is a black and white oil pastel drawing on paper. It depicts a naked screaming child, with arms and legs flailing, held by a grotesque man/spirit that is about to bury the child alive. Assisting him are two devilish gargoyles - one biting the child's right foot, while the other holds a spade in front of the open gravesite. The artist's agitated strokes and dramatic highlights increase the terrifying quality of the scene.

Label TextCamille Eskell American (b. 1954) Repression, 1984 Oil pastel on paper In memory of Mary and Dudley Cooper from the family of Joel B. Cooper 2002.26.6 ~ Camille Eskell's highly emotional drawing Repression is something straight out of a nightmare. A naked, screaming child, his arms and legs flailing, is held by a grotesque spirit that is about to bury him alive. Assisting the spirit are two devilish gargoyles; one bites the child's right foot while the other holds a spade in front of the open grave. Working in black pastel, the artist fashions a surface of agitated strokes and dramatic highlights that only increases the terrifying quality of the scene. The drawing is part of Eskell's The Roots of Terror series, which has occupied her for some time. Dreamlike and hallucinatory, Repression calls to mind the horrors of the Holocaust, as well as Francisco de Goya's The Disasters of War, a series of etchings which, like Repression, serves as a stinging indictment of the atrocities and brutalities men inflict upon one another.