Greek Legend 1937

Clay Edgar Spohn's ‘Greek Legend’ is a drawing made with graphite on paper. Look at the precision in this strange, dreamlike scene – the artist's hand so carefully building up all those grey tones to construct a world half-remembered, half-invented. I can almost feel the artist at work, meticulously layering each stroke, going back and forth to develop these curious forms. What’s it like to sit with the artwork, I wonder? I imagine Spohn hunched over his work, his face close to the paper, gently coaxing this bizarre vision into being. There’s a real strangeness to this drawing: a ship with a black sail on a rough sea; a naked woman holding a ball of yarn; a peculiar dog-like creature staring up at her. Spohn, though not so well known now, was part of an exciting generation of artists who were always trying new things, pushing the boundaries of what art could be. It reminds me that artists are always speaking to one another across time, picking up on each other’s ideas and adding their own unique spin.