Golden Goat

Morris Graves’s depictions of nature have a strong spiritual quality that perhaps reflects his devotion to the principles of Zen Buddhism as well as his intensely private life, which he spent predominantly in the heavily forested landscape of his native Pacific Northwest. Animals are a consistent subject for Graves and serve as a kind of personal symbolism for the values and qualities of life that he most admired. Golden Goat was executed during a two-year stay in Ireland and represents Graves’s high esteem for the singular and independent Irish spirit. Rendered in a simple, linear style on a background of patterned brushwork, the work has a delicate, haunting quality reminiscent of Japanese painting.