Fantasy c. 1950s

William Charles Libby made this graphite artwork called ‘Fantasy,’ and I can only imagine the hours he spent shading and building up tones to create it! I see a carousel in the process of materializing, with horses emerging from the geometric planes and shapes, like an architect’s rendering. The artist takes something representational and breaks it down into almost abstract forms. I think I see the ghost of Cubism here - a faceting of space and form which echoes Picasso and Braque. The artist may have been thinking about how we perceive objects in time and space. Look closely and you can see all the subtle tonal variations, and imagine how this piece came into being, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. It reminds us that artists are in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity.