Guards of Democracy 1937

Robert E. Calhon made this lithograph, Guards of Democracy, at some point during the 20th Century. The black ink almost devours the surface of the paper, and from the depths a scene of war emerges. I’m struck by the scratchy lines and the way the image hovers between representation and abstraction. See how the forms are built up through layers of short, gestural marks? This feels like a raw, immediate response to the subject matter, where the process of mark-making becomes a way of grappling with the complexity of war. The lone standing figure looks almost ghostlike, a silhouette against a backdrop of chaos. This feels like Goya's Disasters of War. Both artists share a vision of art as a space where we confront uncomfortable truths and grapple with the messy realities of human experience. Art doesn’t always have to be pretty, sometimes it’s about wrestling with the darkness.