"Soldier- A Portrait (Peace Revisited)" by Ralph Bakshi (2025)
3rd in the
'Soldier's Series'

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20 x 24 in. —

Acrylic and Charcoal on Canvas

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In this haunting portrait by Ralph Bakshi, a soldier’s head floats —suspended in a void of deep green shadows and silence. The mask is bright red, raw, suggesting danger, anonymity, and abandonment. There is no body beneath it—only the ghost of one, as if the soul has vanished or become invisible, like the many who follow orders without voice or identity.

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This figure recalls PEACE from Bakshi’s 1977 cult classic Wizards—a former soldier for evil who turns toward good. But unlike PEACE, this soldier is stripped of narrative or redemption. There is no weapon, no battle cry—only a silent plea for recognition, or perhaps, a mother's hug. The expressionless mask becomes a mirror: are we all wearing one? Are we all soldiers now, trained to survive in a world on fire?

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Like Francis Bacon's screaming figures or George Grosz’s war-weary grotesques, Bakshi’s masked soldier captures a fractured identity lost in the machinery of modern violence. It is part political commentary, part personal grief—an aching, floating head adrift in search of peace.

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