Midtown Tunnel 1936

Curator: What a captivating cityscape! I'm drawn to the mood that’s immediately created by the artist’s careful attention to structure and value. The way the shapes come together really give a sensation of depth and immensity. Editor: I agree. We are viewing “Midtown Tunnel,” an etching by Theodore Wahl, created in 1936. The scene portrays the construction of the tunnel, which resonates even today as a symbol of ambition and progress from that era. Curator: Exactly! Look at the stark contrasts—the rough, dark textures of the excavated earth versus the rigid, more pristine forms of the buildings in the background. It gives the buildings the sensation of both hovering and looming. Editor: You’re spot-on! Wahl successfully depicts not only the physical construction site, but also how humanity reshapes the Earth for its purposes. It speaks to both the industrial ambition, but it's tempered by the image of the worker alone at the back with only a long tool to guide his labour. The building becomes less a celebration of design and more a shadow overlooking a monumental collective task. Curator: I appreciate how the artist uses line weight to differentiate between foreground and background, while connecting both visually. Editor: That connection speaks to Wahl’s engagement with modernism and realism, melding aspiration with a grounded recognition of toil. There's such strong evocation here for how urban settings changed over time and became something layered over previous versions of reality. The industrial becomes a character of it's own that continues to define the emotional fabric of a place. Curator: I'm particularly struck by how the image captures that moment where industry began to reshape the urban landscape, almost as if the built landscape is something like an icon in itself. Editor: And the excavation as an act of revealing, digging to connect—it invites a symbolic interpretation beyond just construction. I’ll never look at this tunnel the same way!