Aries I

Elizabeth Quandt

One of the Aries Suite Portfolio of 4 etchings of a ram's skull which had been found entwined in a stand of trees by the artist's grandchild.

The skull emerges from a shadowed background, subtle reflections cast beneath it on the surface where it sits. Elizabeth Quandt’s patient hand, coaxing the image from the darkness in finely rendered detail, is evident in the silent matter-of-factness of the subject; the skull appears to stare back at the viewer with eerie stillness. What lies at the core of Quandt’s work is a keen ability to render emotion from objects, as if each is a meditation on an existential question, and in “Aries I” she frames the object ceremoniously, symmetrically, with as much care as an antique urn.