Group of Laborers 1877 - 1957

This is Mahonri Young’s ‘Group of Laborers’ made in ink sometime in the 20th century. It's just scratches on a plate, really - an etching. Look at that main figure, the one swinging the sledgehammer. See how Young suggests volume with nothing but a few quick, scratchy lines? It's almost diagrammatic, like he's mapping out the planes of the body. And how the shading isn't really about light and shadow, but more about emphasis, about telling us where to focus. The whole scene is rendered so economically, with these wiry lines that build up to suggest the density of bodies. I think it’s about the rhythm of labour, each action a line, cross-hatched into a unified experience. The mark making has a rawness to it that reminds me of Käthe Kollwitz, not so much in the subject matter, but in that shared feeling of art being about the touch, the human hand, the way we can get a feeling down. It's like we are witnessing the formation of art as a conversation, echoing and responding across time.