About the work

The idea for this image came from a drawing of a baby with a beard by Dürer. There is something compellingly strange about it (Dürer might actually have seen a bearded baby) – it upsets so much of what you think you know about the natural order of things; age and youth, innocence and experience get mixed up. I have given the baby a wide eyed look of surprise as though his condition has taken him unawares, as if he has suddenly come into consciousness about it. The simplified graphic line and repeated looped shapes have a childish quality that adds friction to the worrying subject matter.

Date and country of birth

1959, ZA

About the artist

Born 1959 Cape Town, Ansel Krut lives and works in London. Graduated from BA Fine Art University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa (1982); and MA Painting, Royal College of Art (1986).

His work is held in public and private collections including the Saatchi Collection, François–Henri Pinault, Arts Council, Government Art Collection, and Contemporary Art Society.

Selected solo exhibitions include New Paintings, Marlborough Chelsea, New York (2019); Cut Flowers, Marlborough Chelsea, New York (2016); Verbatim, Jerwood Gallery, Hastings (2014); Ansel Krut, Modern Art, London (2014); Ansel Krut, Marlborough Chelsea, New York (2013); Ansel Krut, Kade, Amersfoort (2011); Ansel Krut, The Armory Show, New York (2011); and Ansel Krut, Modern Art, London (2010). Selected group exhibitions include Pharmacy for Idiots, Rob Tufnell/Tanya Leighton, Berlin (2017); Theories of Modern Art, Modern Art, London (2016); Painters’ Painters, Saatchi Gallery, London (2016); The Violet Crab at DRAF, David Roberts Arts Foundation, London (2015); Feels Like Heaven, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv (2014); Live and Let Die, Modern Art, London (2014); The Tyranny of Grammar, Fishmarket Gallery, Northampton (2011); and Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami (2010).

 Awards include Abbey Major Scholarship in Painting, British School at Rome (1987); and Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (1983).