Spur c. 1940

R.J. De Freitas made this drawing of a spur, we don't know when, using graphite and colored pencil on paper. I imagine De Freitas, squinting and peering at the object, trying to capture every little detail of the spur. How it glints and gleams in the light, all silvery and metallic. How did he make such a hard, cold thing appear so inviting on the page? The star motif makes me wonder if the artist was thinking about the romance of the Wild West, of cowboys and pioneers, and what it means to be an American. Did he think about the violence of it all, the displacement and erasure? It's fascinating how one small object can open up a whole world of associations. I wonder what other objects were important to him. Artists are always building on each other’s ideas, learning from the past, and pushing into the future.