Drawing Conclusions: An Artist Discovers His America

At the apex of World War II, Tracy Sugarman documented naval life before, during, and after D-Day. In an age often dependent on photography and motion pictures, this artist used paints, ink, and pencil to forge his own distinctive brand of artistic journalism. His entire on-site reportage of those historic moments has now been acquired by the U.S. Library of Congress.

After the war, Sugarman continued to record the triumphs and contradictions of the American experience in vivid pictures and words. The result is a powerful pictorial trove of historic, cultural, and societal events of his time: from the civil rights challenge and transformation in the south to labor demonstrations in the north; from Alvin Ailey dancers to NASA space exploration. Filled with wisdom and humor yet punctuated with outrage over injustice, Sugarman's singular artistry and thoughtful prose provide insights into our American psyche and into the artist's life. Drawing Conclusions shows that an artist's personal imagery can eclipse the graphic potency of a camera in telling a human story.