Drawing 1954

Frederick Sommer created this drawing on paper, but the date is unknown. Sommer was an artist working in the United States during the late twentieth century, a time of great institutional change in the art world. In this drawing, we see two figures rendered in delicate lines against a black background. One is a figure that seems almost like a jester, and the other more abstract. Sommer’s aesthetic was forged in the interwar period, shaped by the experimental pedagogy of the Black Mountain College and the growing interest in Freudian psychoanalysis. As we try to contextualize it, one might ask, did Sommer intend to challenge or reinforce existing artistic conventions? Was he critiquing institutions, or was he exploring new forms of expression within them? As historians, we look to archives, letters, and critical reviews to reconstruct the conversations surrounding such works and to understand their place in the ever-evolving story of art.