Colossus c. 1928

Margaret Lowengrund made this print, Colossus, using etching. The tones are subtle, almost whispered, as though conjured from memory. You can see the push and pull, the dialogue between the artist and the plate as the image slowly surfaces. I wonder, was she thinking about the city as a living, breathing thing? The buildings loom like giants, but the etched lines give them a fragile, almost ethereal quality. Look at the way the light seems to dissolve the edges of the buildings into the sky, or the way she has scratched the surface to make those atmospheric clouds. There is this wonderful sense of scale but also a kind of melancholy, like she is mourning their passing away. Lowengrund’s work reminds me of Piranesi's etchings of Rome, those monumental ruins that speak of grandeur and decay. Artists are always riffing off each other, taking ideas and running with them. And that's how art evolves, this endless conversation across time.