The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 30, 2026

A horizontally oriented color screenprint with monotype features fluid, overlapping shapes in vibrant lime and moss green against a dark background. A broad, translucent form sweeps diagonally from the upper left. To our right, a tall, wavy shape reaches upward, while a third rounded form sits in the lower left. These organic shapes display marbled patterns with yellow and blue streaks. A white inscription reads JMC in the lower corner to our right.

Untitled

1968

James McCracken, Jr.

(American, 1942–2017)
America
color screenprint with monotype
Image: 23.5 x 26.6 cm (9 1/4 x 10 1/2 in.); Sheet: 23.5 x 29 cm (9 1/4 x 11 7/16 in.)
Gift of John B. Davidson 2025.11
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

John 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 John 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.”
  • ?–2025
    John B. Davidson, Chicago, IL, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    March 3, 2025–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Untitled|url=false|author=James McCracken, Jr.|year=1968|access-date=30 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2025.11