McSorley's 1935 - 1940

Ellison Hoover made this lithograph, McSorley's, with crayon. It’s amazing how Hoover coaxes so much depth from such a restricted palette. It reminds me of the way artists like Ad Reinhardt used to talk about black – not as an absence of color, but as a color in its own right, full of nuance. Look at the way he uses the crayon to create such different textures – the subtle gradations in the background, the rough, almost scratchy quality of the faces, the velvety smoothness of the bar top. And the light! It’s so subtle, so diffused, yet it defines everything. There's a tiny detail, right in the middle – a figure with a pipe, almost lost in the shadows. Yet it anchors the whole composition, drawing the eye and giving a sense of depth. I think of someone like George Bellows, who captured the energy of New York, or maybe even Edward Hopper, with his understated views of American life.