The Dawn 1929

Editor: Brrr, that’s cold. This woodcut print from 1929 is Marsham Wright’s "The Dawn". It looks so industrial; did people actually experience mornings like this? Curator: Doesn’t it give you the shivers? The composition itself feels almost suffocating, as if the buildings are looming, and the dawn… well, it doesn’t exactly promise warmth, does it? More like a stark awakening. Editor: Wright's work emerged within the broader context of early 20th-century urban expansion and its associated socio-economic shifts, I wonder how the public reacted. Expressionism emphasized subjective experience, and prints were pretty accessible… so were people resonating? Were they recoiling? Curator: I see this almost like a stage set for a slightly unnerving dream. Look at the street lights—like vacant eyes staring back. The lines are so angular and sharp; they speak of a sort of brutal honesty. It isn't pretty, is it? Editor: Not exactly picture-postcard material. I think what strikes me most is its engagement with a modernism of urban life and social experience. Its expressionistic qualities translate a very intense visual of what was then called "the new city." How it physically and psychically affected residents. Curator: It certainly gives pause, doesn't it? Makes one think about the cost of progress. Each building angled dangerously, or those smoky plumes reaching into the heavens... like a sacrifice. A beautiful, haunting sacrifice. Editor: A stark and arresting representation. Certainly demands us to examine what has come to pass, and reflect on the imagery of that time in context with our own modernity. Curator: Yes, what echoes remain, and perhaps also, what sunrises have been won anew. Food for thought indeed.