Warehouse District 1939

Eugene Morley made "Warehouse District" using lithography, and looking at it makes me think about the exchange between an artist and the world. The artist looks, then the world gets remade. The scene feels dark, yet solid. You can sense Morley’s hand at work, the grit and grain of the lithographic stone. I can imagine him drawing, erasing, and re-drawing—building up layers of tone to get this incredible range of blacks and greys. It is abstract, yet evokes the hard edges, shadows, and textures of the city, its buildings, and pathways. It is less about directly representing the urban environment, and more about conveying a sense of space and atmosphere. Morley’s urban scenes are often more about the feeling of a place than its actual appearance. His work reminds me of other painters, like Lyonel Feininger, who found ways to capture the essence of a place through a personal language of form and expression.