Barn Near Reading, Pennsylvania 1937

"Barn Near Reading, Pennsylvania" was made as a wood engraving by J. J. Lankes. Look at the way the artist has worked the surface of the wood, cutting away to leave the image standing proud in relief. It makes me think of printmaking as a real process, cutting and tooling. There's something really satisfying about the textures and tones in this image, and the way the artist has used the black and white to create a real sense of depth. You can see how the artist has carved the wood to create different effects, from the smooth sky to the rough stone of the barn. I keep coming back to the way the artist has rendered the clouds. There's such a sense of movement and energy in the swirling lines, it makes me think of a Van Gogh sky. Lankes's work often depicted rural scenes and landscapes. He reminds me of someone like Thomas Nast or another social realist, really embracing the everyday. Art's all about this kind of back-and-forth, I think, this ongoing dialogue between artists across time.