Dime Dance Hall c. 1935 - 1943

Edwin Earle made “Dime Dance Hall” as a print, but when I look at it, I think about drawing. The way the forms emerge out of clusters of energetic marks – it's like seeing a drawing that’s been etched into a plate. There's a real sense of the artist feeling their way through the scene. The texture feels built up, almost like a collage but made entirely out of lines. Look closely at the faces, see how they emerge from the darkness with these almost feverish marks? It’s kind of grotesque, but compelling. The highlights on the dancer’s arms are like white-hot trails, so intense it feels like they could burn right through the paper. Earle reminds me a little of George Grosz, that same biting social commentary but with its own distinct flavor. It really captures that sense of fleeting moments and shared experiences in the city, the echoes and reverberations of time.