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Untitled

c. 1966

James McCracken, Jr.

(American, 1942–2017)
Culture
America
Medium
Pen and black ink on ivory wove paper
Measurements
Image: 22.2 x 25 cm (8 3/4 x 9 13/16 in.); Sheet: 23.2 x 26 cm (9 1/8 x 10 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of John B. Davidson 2024.104
Copyright
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

James McCracken Jr. is little known today in part because he did not offer his works for sale to the public during his lifetime.

Description

A native of Lakewood, Ohio, the little-known artist James McCracken Jr. worked primarily on paper in a style influenced by the art of the Surrealists. Imaginative compositions such as the one seen here—which presents a monstrous, wilting plant rising out of a dense foreground populated with vines, roots, and biomorphic forms—recall dreams and the subconscious. McCracken worked in a precise, linear style that led Alfred H. Barr Jr.—an esteemed historian of modern art and the founding director of New York’s Museum of Modern Art—to describe him as “the new Dürer.”
A horizontally oriented pen and black ink drawing on ivory paper features a complex surrealist landscape. To the left, dense, tangled lines form roots around a dark arched opening. A central, bulbous shape defined by intricate hatching rests on a tiered platform. Delicate, arched stems curve across the composition, ending in withered, drooping forms. Fine pen strokes and cross-hatching create deep textures throughout the scene, all framed by a thin double-lined border.

Untitled

c. 1966

James McCracken, Jr.

(American, 1942–2017)
America

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