Civic Repertory c. 1935 - 1943

This is Harry LeRoy Taskey’s "Civic Repertory" – an etching, where the artist worked into the metal plate with focused energy. The whole image is built up through these tiny marks, like a mosaic. See how the architectural details are rendered through these hatch marks and tiny flicks, giving a real sense of the building’s presence. The texture almost mimics the feel of rough stone. The sky is alive with tiny scratches, like restless thoughts, with diagonal marks bringing movement and energy into the composition, contrasting with the immobility of the theatre. Look closely at the figure of the vendor in the foreground, his form dissolves and re-emerges out of the dark shadows. The piece seems to speak to a New York moment, the artist a flaneur, recording a fragment of the city. Whistler comes to mind – but Taskey's world feels more raw, less stylized. Art’s not about answers, but about the questions it opens up.