Waterfront II 1959

Hereward Lester Cooke made this Waterfront II print at an undetermined date. The way he's layered the ink, it feels like he's searching for the scene, feeling his way through the dark and light. Looking at this, it feels like Cooke is letting the texture of the printmaking process speak. See how the tones aren’t solid but made up of tiny marks? The whole image is built from these little gestures. There’s this smokestack towards the center that rises up, anchoring the whole composition, and the reflections in the water look soft. The overall effect gives the sense of a bustling port, but also a kind of quiet stillness. It makes me think of Whistler’s etchings of London; not in the style, but in that similar pursuit of capturing a moment, a feeling. Like many artists, Cooke is not just representing a place but also a memory, or an experience of a place, open to interpretation.