Widow 1944

Editor: This is "Widow," a 1944 print by Robert Austin. It looks like an ink drawing of a woman sawing wood. It strikes me as incredibly stark and sort of sad. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Well, immediately I'm drawn to the labor being depicted. The figure, presumably the widow of the title, is engaged in physical work. Consider the materiality here: wood, a saw, ink on paper. These are not rarefied materials, are they? This engraving shows a woman engaged in what looks like her essential work. Think about wartime economies and how they reshape labor; does that framing shift your reading? Editor: Definitely. The setting—the rough-hewn wood, the simple clothing—highlights the sheer manual effort. It makes me think about resourcefulness and the pressure wartime puts on everyday lives. Are you suggesting Austin’s drawing is making a social statement? Curator: Precisely! I suggest the artist calls attention to the dignity and perhaps drudgery of this specific labor within the print medium, itself a craft, by calling our attention to all of the various physical properties that come together in both activities. I wonder if Austin saw this print medium as a tool to convey these observations and feelings of the impact of the conflict he found around him? How does its status as a print, a potentially reproducible object, impact its meaning to you? Editor: I hadn’t considered it that way, but that makes a lot of sense. Because it is reproducible, this image has the capacity to serve as document and example of wartime austerity. Thank you for that lens! Curator: It's about recognising how the mundane informs everything else. Appreciating the tangible can reveal incredible things.