Toro

Dennis Ray Beall

This lithographic image of a bull, emphasizing the power and potential destruction that can be directed toward an adversary, was done by Dennis Beall in 1957 while working on his MFA at San Francisco State College on the G.I. Bill.

Though primarily experimenting with Abstract Expressionism using lithography at this time, sometimes a figurative image emerged that was too compelling not to print, such as ‘Toro’. Because of the lack of galleries willing to exhibit their works and virtually no collectors, the editions of these works were small, meant more to trade with colleagues, so they are quite rare.

Beall and John Ihle helped establish lithography at SFSC and used the medium as a painter uses a canvas, covering the whole stone with the image. When you look at the lithographs that were created at SFSC in the mid 1950s you began to recognize the stones that were used by the irregular edges, chips that had occurred to the stone over the years.

Beall further stresses the power of the bull by filling the whole stone with its image, illuminated in light, standing in a dark field, giving the viewer nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. You are forced to look or look away.