Night Walk 1965

Jacob Kainen created this woodcut titled 'Night Walk' sometime around 1942. Kainen spent much of his career in Washington D.C., working for the federal government. The image is a powerful piece of social commentary made during the Second World War. In its stark black and white contrasts, the print conveys the tension and anxiety of the era. There is a sense of claustrophobia in the way the figure is boxed in by the buildings and fences in the background. The woodcut as a medium had long been associated with German Expressionism and artists like Kathe Kollwitz, and had come to represent a visual language of social protest. Kainen knew this history and how it could be mobilized for his own ends. To truly understand this print, one should delve deeper into the archives of the period, considering the role of the Works Progress Administration in supporting artists and the cultural debates around abstraction and representation in wartime America. The meaning of art is always bound up with its moment in time.