Lots of artists have the talent to become noted masters, but more than just creativeness is required to reach greatness. It takes an enormous ego, unfailing gumption, and blind determination. Many who inherit creativity but never figure out the politics of their sport become great teachers because they like sharing their thoughts and discovering new ones. But great artists are rarely generous in that way. They resist the temptations of other ideas (or claim the good ones as their own) in order to become leaders.

Understanding Modern Art: The Boundless Spirit of Clay Edgar Spohn is the life story of one American artist who had the creative talent and connections to make it big but never figured out, or had it in him, how to shape his career in order to ensure cultural immortality. Spohn let himself be lured by new modernist genres as they arose – a bit of French surrealism, Miro-esque abstractions, Calder-like mobiles and wire forms, and junk art assemblages that were comparable to the Funk Art being produced in San Francisco in the mid-1960s.

David Beasley’s book is intended to put Spohn into the history books as a great but overlooked artist. But this cannot happen because Spohn was not great. He was an observant follower and, apparently, an excellent teacher, but not a master of any one style, philosophy, or medium. Spohn is a great subject for a story about how some artists attain stature and others don’t. He hung out with the best of them: Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, and Agnes Martin. But he remained on the fringe.

Beasley met Spohn during the last years of his life and obviously felt great compassion for Spohn’s rich but ultimately failed career. Understanding is a tribute to the artist, as one friend might do for another. There are anecdotes from friends vouching for what a great guy Spohn was, as if these posthumous tributes are proof of unrecognized genius. But beyond that, it is a badly pulled-together book that meanders aimlessly in thought and direction. And the title’s theme – understanding modern art – is never tackled.