Chasing Howard Hughes c. 1970

This caricature of Howard Hughes, by Jack Davis, looks like it was made with ink and watercolour. I can imagine Davis's hand darting across the page, the wetness of the ink bleeding into the paper as he tries to capture the slippery, iconic figure, Hughes. There's a playful, almost frantic energy in the way the figures are drawn, all these women are chasing him, but he still eludes them, perched high on that greased pole! The gestures remind me of chasing after something just out of reach, that constant striving and failing. I wonder what it was like for Jack Davis to work on this piece? Did he feel like he was chasing something too? Maybe it's about how we’re all chasing something, whether it's fame, love, or just a sense of purpose, and how sometimes the chase is more revealing than the prize itself. It’s that constant exchange, that give-and-take between artists across time, inspiring each other to make something new.