Bull

Bull, a rare 1964 R.C. Gorman oil pastel, is a powerful early-career expressionist study of a bull’s head rendered in bold charcoal black, umber, and warm flesh pinks on an earthen-gray ground. Gorman pushes the subject nearly to abstraction, scribbled black strokes carving out the heavy jowls and horned silhouette while streaks of yellow ochre and brick red flare at the muzzle. The raw, almost primal energy of the piece is unmistakably informed by the artist’s early exposure to Mexican muralism during his Mexico City studies. Signed and dated 1964, this original is a highly unusual Gorman subject from his formative years. A landmark find for collectors of vintage Gorman, expressionist animal art, and early Native American modernism.