Industrial Site c. early 1940s

John Conway Menihan’s ‘Industrial Site’ is a print, and you can see the artist is really thinking through the process. The way he’s handled the blacks and grays, it's almost sculptural. I'm thinking about the way a sculptor carves into a block, deciding what to leave and what to take away. Look at that large wooden fence, made of vertical lines, and the soft shadows alongside the railway track, you can see how Menihan is thinking about texture, and using the pencil almost like a knife, digging into the surface. The tonal range creates a kind of emotional depth, too. It’s not just a picture of a factory; it’s about the mood of industrial spaces. It reminds me a little bit of Charles Sheeler, but maybe with a touch more grit. It’s about embracing the beauty in the mundane, and finding poetry in the everyday.