The Iliad drawings deal with Homer’s telling of the tragic death of Hector, here played out against a backdrop of upstate New York farm silos. Athena figures prominently, with her helmet set rakishly so as not to disturb her ponytail. The drawings featured here are part of a group of 32, and was the result of a careful reading in the Rieu translation of Hector’s death at the hands of Achilles (and Athena).
The manipulation of the Greeks and Trojans by the gods and goddesses fascinated the artist because these beings were invisible. How do you draw that?
The artist’s last finished group of drawings depicts the Angels of the Four Winds. Squatting atop farm silos, Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel are shown as old men who grasp their weapons tightly as they wait for their final adversary which is death.
The drawings are significant in that, the artist departed from the normal ordered cleanliness of his drawings by deliberately grinding dirt into the mylar. He wrote of these drawings “Silos, Dirt, Bugs, Dust”.