Graham Sutherland
British, b.1903, d.1980
Armadillo
- 1968
- Lithograph
- Purchased 1971
- 659 x 500mm
- 71/44
Tags: animals, armadillos, armor (protective wear)
The armadillo lives in South America. Its name means ‘little armoured one’ in Spanish. Among the twenty different species of this interesting creature, the three-banded armadillo is the only one that can roll itself into a tight ball when it needs to for protection.
The painter Graham Sutherland made this print as part of a ‘Bestiary’ published in 1968, a collection of twenty-six lithographs featuring different animals, each one suggesting a particular human-like quality. Curling tight, this armadillo may be expressing fear.
(Beasts, 2015)