Fifty Cents a Hundred 1940

James Baare Turnbull made this print, Fifty Cents a Hundred, sometime in the 1940s. The entire scene is built from such intricate cross hatching and mark making, like a kind of feverish dedication to process. Look closely, and you can see how the figures emerge from a dense network of lines, each one carefully placed. It's all monochrome, but feels so full of texture, from the rough fabric of the workers' clothes to the heavy sacks they're filling. I'm really drawn to that diagonal road that seems to extend toward the horizon, the lines of the road giving it this dynamic perspective. It suggests not just a physical space but a journey, a passage through the landscape and perhaps through time. The way he uses these graphic elements reminds me of the prints of someone like Jacob Lawrence. I think what’s so interesting is the way the image isn’t just representational but also deeply expressive. It’s less about the specific scene and more about conveying the feeling of the scene, the labor, and the landscape, and how those things intertwine in our experience.