City Scene II 1949

Bernard Brussel-Smith made "City Scene II" as a block print, and it’s all about how he carves the light. It’s a black and white world, yet there is so much texture, like he’s feeling his way through the city with his fingertips. Look closely at the lower left, the grid of tiny marks that describe the ground. Then your eye bounces up to the smooth, bright planes of the stairs, which seem to hover, disconnected. It feels like a dream, or a memory. The steps could be Escher, but the birds hint at something else, an urban surrealism all of his own. I am reminded of Piranesi's etchings of impossible prisons, though Brussel-Smith’s work is less about despair, more about the strange beauty of the everyday. It’s like he’s saying, even the most ordinary places can be a little bit magical, if you just know how to look.