Peace and War 1916

Joseph Pennell made this print, Peace and War, in an unknown year with what looks like graphite on paper. I think the mark-making is beautiful, so many short, tiny lines coming together to suggest shapes, light, and form. The process feels very direct, almost like a transcription of the scene. Looking closer, you can see how he’s built up the tones in the smokestacks and buildings with layers of hatching. It’s very delicate, but the overall effect is quite powerful. The title suggests a binary, but it's not that simple. Peace and War seem to co-exist here, maybe even depend on each other. It's a kind of drawing that makes you think about the relationship between industry and nature, or maybe even progress and destruction. The way Pennell captures the light and atmosphere reminds me of Whistler, but there's also something very contemporary about it. Like Ed Ruscha's books, it captures a specific time and place, but also speaks to something universal about the human condition. The beauty of art is that it embraces the ambiguity, which is why there is no right answer.