Bronx El 1940

Jacob Kainen made this etching, called Bronx El, sometime in the mid-twentieth century, using delicate but assertive lines. Looking at this print, I imagine Kainen hunched over a copper plate, carefully drawing with a needle, building up the image bit by bit. This isn't just a picture; it's a record of a process, a dialogue between the artist and the metal. There’s a house sat above the El, and in the background, the faintest suggestion of a cityscape. What a wonderful, strange juxtaposition. What could Kainen have been thinking? You can sense the influence of artists like John Sloan, but Kainen’s mark-making is very much his own. He seems to be saying something about the everyday, about finding beauty and intrigue in the mundane. It makes you wonder about all the other artists out there, then and now, drawn to the city.