The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of July 8, 2026

A horizontally oriented graphite drawing features a textured spiral of hundreds of gray rectangular strokes. These marks radiate from a central point on the off-white surface, forming overlapping concentric rings that expand toward the paper's edges. Small gaps of the pale background peek through the dense graphite application. The spiral's outer boundary is jagged and irregular, defined by the rhythmic, blocky motion of the individual marks.

17 Oberlin

1973

Athena Tacha

(American, b. 1936)
America
graphite
Sheet: 27.9 x 35.6 cm (11 x 14 in.)
Gift of Athena Tacha 2025.211.5
© Athena Tacha
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This drawing belongs to a series that is one of several works in which Tacha has explored imagery of spirals throughout her career.

Description

Born in Greece, Athena Tacha studied in Paris before obtaining advanced degrees in both art history and fine art. She eventually settled in Oberlin, Ohio, where she served as both the first curator of modern art for Oberlin College’s Allen Memorial Art Museum, and late as a professor of sculpture for several decades. Around this time, she began to create site-specific environmental sculpture—the medium for which she is best known. In her exploratory series of drawings, Spirals, Tacha used various media to render layered circular forms on sketchbook paper. The works represent a theme that recurred throughout the artist’s work throughout her career, and one that she once described as recalling shells and galaxies.
  • {{cite web|title=17 Oberlin|url=false|author=Athena Tacha|year=1973|access-date=08 July 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2025.211.5