Abandoned 1940

J. Jay McVicker made this print called Abandoned in 1940, though the medium is not stated, I would guess it is an etching. It has an overall grainy texture which gives it a soft, slightly out-of-focus feel. The image is an industrial scene, all straight lines and hard edges, which contrasts with the soft, uneven texture of the print. Look at the way the lines and shapes build up the forms - the careful cross-hatching and layering that give the image its depth. My eye keeps going back to the smokestack, it’s like a dark exclamation point in the composition. It draws your eye upwards, but the overall grayness keeps the mood muted, and melancholic. The landscape feels flattened, the abandoned factory recedes into the distance. McVicker was a regionalist artist, and his work often depicted scenes of everyday life in the Midwest. He made a lot of prints like this one, and his work reminds me of some of the WPA artists who were also documenting American life during the Depression. There is a sense of loneliness and isolation, but also a kind of stark beauty in the industrial landscape.