Advice To Antique Car Racer

Edgar Dorsey Taylor

California artist Edgar Dorsey Taylor studied with Hans Hofmann in Germany in the 1920s, and his continued admiration for the work of German Expressionists remained an element of his style throughout his career. Bold, shapely abstraction held as much power in Taylor’s representation of landscapes as his images of the human condition, and sorrow, joy, and humor played out in equal measure in his woodcuts, paintings, and stained glass.

Here, a helmeted race car driver takes in the advice of his mechanic as he anticipates the signal to take off, a small flag jolting up through the composition on high alert. The image is tinged with humor and Taylor’s style echoes that of his predecessors, his lines and the contortion of figures and objects finding a strange, enticing balance on the sheet.