The Year's at the Spring 1920

Harry Clarke conjured "The Year's at the Spring" with ink on paper. There's a real tension here between flat pattern and imagined space. Look how the figures seem cut out and pasted, yet possess so much detail. I imagine Clarke hunched over his desk, obsessively marking the page. Think of all those tiny strokes building up the figures, and the horses, strutting with such ornamental pride! I wonder if Clarke felt the same way when he made it? Each stroke, I mean, is a decision, a commitment. And those frilly horses! It’s as if Aubrey Beardsley got a hold of some fairy-tale horses, covering them in lace. This piece is about the conversation between precision and fantasy, how tight control can lead to wild imaginings. And that dialogue continues—artists today are still responding, remixing, and reimagining such beautiful, eccentric works. That’s the beauty of art, isn’t it?