Untitled (Razing A Building) c. 1939

Curator: This social realist drawing, rendered in pencil, offers a stark depiction of urban life. Titled "Untitled (Razing A Building)," and created circa 1939 by Ruth Chaney, the image arrests my attention with its ominous tone. Editor: Ominous is right. Look at the texture in that sky! The medium lends a grittiness to the scene, highlighting the harshness of the depicted labor and decay. The physical act of repeatedly layering pencil to create these dense blacks – it mirrors the relentless, physical labor the drawing portrays. Curator: Indeed. Note the group of laborers carrying what seems to be debris. They bring to mind those often overlooked, the unseen backbone of urban change, their physical efforts almost allegorical, embodying struggle during that time. Chaney subtly draws parallels to a much wider reality. Editor: Right. And those parallels become explicit when you consider the architecture. The skeleton of a building – it’s not just being destroyed, but deconstructed. The labor is a method; pulling apart and breaking down the built environment. Pencil too can have a similarly deconstructive relationship to representation, roughing out the edges and underbelly of forms. It captures change, as well as lost dreams in every stone. Curator: I see how you might read “lost dreams” into it. But it isn’t just melancholic, perhaps it is about urban renewal—destruction as an agent of change. Chaney emphasizes resilience by showcasing a collective effort against environmental degradation through their concerted labors. These symbols resonate strongly—a phoenix moment, if you will. Editor: A "phoenix moment," interesting. I appreciate that sentiment, but look again, especially at the figure striking what’s left with what looks like a bat. It reminds me more of a playground. He even faces away from the work. Is the drawing a social critique, perhaps alluding to how progress forgets people and leaves devastation in its wake, only turning destruction into a spectacle? Curator: It is true that it provokes questions around those themes. The drawing, even through something as simple as pencil marks, brings such things to light in our mind. Editor: And by its creation through this physically active medium, brings questions to the heart as well.