Go Back! Wrong Boat! 1947

Herbert Lawrence Block made this drawing with graphite on paper. Look at how his mark-making feels both precise and improvisational. It’s like he’s thinking through drawing. He uses a limited range of tones and textures to convey a scene loaded with historical and political meaning. The texture of the rocks in the foreground is rendered with dense, scribbled marks, contrasting with the smoother lines defining the water and distant city. This contrast gives the drawing a sense of depth. The figure’s gesture, caught mid-shout, and the tilted frame of the Mayflower image, create a feeling of instability and moral reckoning. Block’s style reminds me a little of Philip Guston’s later political cartoons, where the medium’s directness amplifies the message. Like Guston, Block isn’t afraid to embrace the messiness of the line, leaving room for doubt and interpretation.