Stone Street 1946

Mortimer Borne’s “Stone Street” presents us with an urban landscape meticulously rendered through the intaglio printmaking technique of etching. The dense, cross-hatched lines create a palpable sense of depth and texture, bringing the architecture of the street to life. Borne’s skill is evident in the way he coaxes out the subtlest details, such as shopfronts and street lamps, creating a rich tapestry of urban life. The etching process, which involves drawing into a prepared ground on a metal plate, then bathing it in acid to create incised lines, is labor-intensive. The resulting print embodies a kind of working-class ethos, a reflection of the sheer effort required to produce it. Despite the connotations of craft, printmaking has always been bound up with capitalist modes of production, facilitating the broad distribution of images and ideas. Borne's "Stone Street" serves as a reminder that an image's material qualities are not separable from its social and economic context. The artwork encourages us to recognize the value of skilled labor, and question traditional hierarchies that place painting and sculpture above printmaking.