Untitled (Abstraction) 1948

James Budd Dixon made this abstract work on paper sometime in the mid-20th century. The medium looks like graphite or charcoal, materials easily accessible and handled. The lines, layered and dense, pull our eyes this way and that. Although abstract, we sense forms emerging: a human-like figure, a serpent, an eye. Dixon coaxes these shapes into being with simple lines and shading, building up a complex, almost chaotic image from humble means. The texture is soft and velvety where the graphite is layered, almost like a woven textile. Dixon's choice of materials speaks to a wider artistic trend of the 20th century. Eschewing traditional fine art materials, he embraced the everyday, the accessible. This elevation of the ordinary challenges our conventional understanding of what constitutes art, suggesting that creativity can be found not just in precious materials or painstaking labor, but in direct and immediate expression.