A Ship Yard Possibly 1917 - 1918

Muirhead Bone made this print, A Ship Yard, with ink on paper. I can only imagine Bone, standing there amidst the skeletal structures of the ship yard, searching for the right lines to capture the scene's immensity. It’s a symphony of lines, you know? Some thick, some thin, all dancing together to create this bustling, industrial landscape. The crisscrossing of lines almost feels like the chaotic energy of the shipyard itself. I wonder if Bone knew how radical his mark-making was. It reminds me of other graphic artists like Joseph Pennell, but also anticipates the Precisionist painters like Charles Sheeler and Charles Demuth. Whether he knew it or not, Muirhead Bone entered into a long conversation with artists across time, each one building on the other's discoveries and innovations. And what they have in common is this belief in the power of line to capture the messy, complex beauty of the world around us.