The Bread Market, Tetuan 1912

Editor: This etching, "The Bread Market, Tetuan" by James McBey, transports us to a bustling North African cityscape. It's dated 1912, and it's just a whirlwind of line work. The way it captures this vibrant, lively place... I find myself almost hearing the sounds of the market. What do you make of it? Curator: Oh, it's more than just a picture, isn't it? McBey really caught something, didn't he? Those busy figures... They’re like little calligraphic strokes defining that space between cultures. The “Orientalist” gaze, you know, often simplified or romanticized such scenes, but McBey feels… I don't know, almost humanizing. Editor: Humanizing how? I mean, we don’t really see individual faces, right? Curator: Exactly! It's the overall hum, the busy-ness... more of an impression, less a document. Like a memory… faded at the edges, focused on the feelings. Don't you think the etching medium adds to that? Editor: It does, the etching feels aged and authentic, right? What I still struggle with is how it balances those feelings with historical context... does it reflect reality, or construct its own? Curator: Good question, isn't it? Does any artwork TRULY reflect anything but the artist's singular lens? I mean, can we ever truly get past our own filter to see… the Bread Market as it “actually” was? Perhaps, that’s why I like this print – because McBey, wittingly or unwittingly, asks that question right back at us. Editor: It's a point well-taken: art, memory and history – never one, never separate. Curator: Precisely! And that's where the magic happens, I suppose, where interpretation invites us to reconsider… everything.