World's Fair Panorama c. 1939

William Sanger’s print shows us a World’s Fair Panorama, but when it was made is anyone’s guess. Look at the subtle gradations of tone, like a pencil gently caressing paper, creating a vision of utopian architecture, tiny figures, and looming mountains. I imagine Sanger hunched over the plate, coaxing out these delicate lines, maybe thinking about progress, and the future, or maybe just lost in the meditative act of mark-making. He would have been using a drypoint, I think. It is a very direct way of drawing. The line is so soft. See that figure with its arm raised? What's he saying? Or is he just hailing a cab? It makes me think of Piranesi, those fantastic etchings of imaginary prisons, but with a touch of American optimism, and a very nice, gentle line. Ultimately, this piece reminds us that art is a constant conversation, artists riffing off each other across time, each adding their own voice to the mix.