New York c. 1940

Ruth Lewin made this linocut, called 'New York', using knives and gouges to carve into a sheet of linoleum, rolling it with ink, and pressing it onto paper. I imagine the artist leaning over a table, carefully cutting away at the surface, the black lines emerging through trial and error. Look at the stark contrasts between black and white; the criss-crossing lines forming an image of the city through the frame of a bridge. How did she decide what to include, and what to omit? The inky blackness of the bridge contrasts with the white blocks of the buildings, somehow capturing the feeling of a bustling metropolis. I’m thinking about other graphic artists like Jacob Lawrence, who also used a pared-down approach to capture the city, reducing it to just a few essential forms. Artists are constantly in conversation, building upon each other’s work.