Harlem River Bridges 1940

Elizabeth Olds made this print of the Harlem River Bridges with some kind of printmaking technique and a very limited palette. It’s all about process, you can feel the hand that made it. There's this cool, slightly off-kilter feel to the whole thing, achieved with a textured surface and the way the colors layer up. The color is mostly this muted teal, but then there's this pop of red on the building which draws the eye. Look at the way the smoke is rendered, that white feels almost sculptural, like it’s been carved out of the paper itself. It makes me wonder what kind of tools she was using. Thinking about other artists, someone like Jacob Lawrence comes to mind, with his interest in the everyday lives of working people. It's all about the conversation between artists, across time. There is no one right way to read a piece, it's about letting the art speak to you, in its own language.