When? 1940

George Albert Harris made this print, called 'When?', using monochrome ink on paper. I can imagine him carefully carving into the block, building up the image bit by bit. It’s like he’s piecing together fragments of memory. Look at the contrasts between hard and soft: the rigid geometry of the bricks against the swirling grain of wood, the smooth surface of the wall against the dotted texture of the sky. Harris is making something solid out of vapor. In one section an airplane flies through a gap in the clouds. It's a moment of lightness and hope amidst the heavy, geometric forms. His process reminds me of the way painters like Stuart Davis or the British Vorticists used hard-edged abstraction to express the dynamism of modern life. Artists look to each other across time, riffing on each other's moves, expanding the possibilities for visual expression. Painting is this ongoing conversation, and this print feels like Harris is really listening.