Connecticut Yankee 1932

Stevan Dohanos made this print, Connecticut Yankee, and its moody greys give off a somber feel. It's almost noir. Imagine Dohanos there, squinting in the light, trying to get the shadows just right. He’s using the stark contrast between light and shadow to define every plane, every muscle of this figure’s face. It's like he's trying to carve this man out of the darkness. And what about the texture in the sky? You can see the small marks, almost like a pointillist painting, to give the illusion of a cloudy day. The composition leads your eye from the bright golf ball, up the dark figure, to the sky, and the horizon line in the background. This reminds me of other social realists like Thomas Hart Benton, or even some of the WPA artists who were capturing the American scene during that time. Artists like Dohanos build on each other's work across time. They see how someone uses light, how they tell a story, and then they try something new, adding their own voice to the conversation. It's not about being definitive, but more like asking questions and keeping the conversation flowing.