Laocoön 1924

Clifford Berryman made this drawing, called Laocoön, on a sheet of paper, but when? The date is nowhere to be seen! Berryman has filled the whole sheet with frantic cross-hatching, a kind of scribbly shading. It’s like he’s trying to capture a feeling more than a likeness. The lines, thick and thin, build up a real sense of tension. Look at how the dark hatching concentrates around the figures, especially the snake labeled "Oil Lease Scandal." Its coils are so dense, they almost vibrate with anxiety. It makes me think about artmaking itself, how we layer marks, build up textures, and sometimes, accidentally, create a feeling we didn't even plan on. The way the elephant’s trunk reaches up, frozen, the donkey’s wide eyes, it's like they're all caught in a moment of dawning horror. You know, this reminds me a bit of Honoré Daumier, with his knack for capturing political absurdities. Art is a conversation, after all, each artist riffing on what came before, adding their own twist to the story.