Connecticut Yankee 1932

Stevan Dohanos made this image, Connecticut Yankee, using lithography. It looks like the sky behind him is made up of these tiny marks. You can almost see him dragging the litho crayon across the surface. These small marks feel really intimate, but there's this immense feeling of space and air. I think about the material aspect of this work and, in particular, the way he's using tone and mark-making to suggest light and shadow. The way he lets the white shine off the ball on the ground. It gives this object so much presence. In the shadow, he lets the hat become completely flat and dark. And from under the hat, the face emerges. There's something very Marsden Hartley about this character in the way he's almost made of planes. And I'm wondering what that says about American character, and how it evolves over time.