Medusa Beer Truck 1908

John Sloan’s ink on paper, *Medusa Beer Truck,* feels like a study or a sketch, but it has a lot to say about the daily grind, a horse harnessed to its duty. I'm thinking about all the marks Sloan made, trying to get a handle on things. I can almost see him standing there, quickly capturing a scene of daily life. The horse and driver, the building, the workers unloading beer—all these elements rendered with simple lines and shading. What was it like to be Sloan, standing on that street corner? It probably stank and was noisy. I keep thinking about the barrels. The title *Medusa Beer Truck* is interesting, because it is a detail that has been elevated to a point of focus. Is it the barrels that turn you to stone? The entire scene shares a connection to other urban realist artists of the time, like the Ashcan School, who also looked at the everyday lives of city dwellers. It's a reminder that artists are always riffing off one another and inspiring new ways of seeing.