The Coke and Gas Plant c. 1931 - 1932

Adolph J. Kopcak made this lithograph, "The Coke and Gas Plant," on paper at some point in the twentieth century. Looking at this image, I’m thinking about the industrial landscape, the grays, blacks, and whites, the smokestacks and the suggestion of water. What was Kopcak thinking when he made this image? Was he trying to capture the gritty reality of industrial life? Or was he trying to find some beauty in the starkness of it all? I am drawn to the repetitive marks, and the light that emerges from within the heavy darkness. It's interesting how different artists can see and represent the same subject matter in such different ways. When I consider Kopcak's industrial scene, I’m thinking of Charles Sheeler, and all those Precisionist painters, all those artists who came before and will come after, all in conversation with one another. Like, how can we look at the world? How can we transcribe it? How can we make it sing?