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Clay Spohn was an influential artist and teacher at the California School of fine Arts when it first became a laboratory for experimentation. It was the heyday of abstract expressionism, and the school played host to David Park, Clyfford Still, Richard Diebenkorn and Elmer Bischoff with occasional visits from artists like Mark Rothko. Spohn's irreverent sensibility was formed during the course of an education that took him to New York and Paris. He met the surrealists there and befriended Alexander Calder, who, legend has it, he convinced to work on mobiles. In the 50s, Spohn went to Taos, New Mexico, where he continued to paint with Edward Corbett, Diebenkorn and others forming what has become known as the Taos Moderns. He moved to New York in the 60s, where he died penniless and little known. |
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