Unemployed c. 1935

George Wiggins made this print, Unemployed, with ink on paper. I can imagine him using the side of the pencil to create the smudgy atmosphere! It has a really somber feel, like a grey day hanging over the city. The composition is so crowded, with all the people and their signs all pushed together. What was it like to be Wiggins, deciding where to put each mark? How do you capture such a dense crowd and still maintain some kind of order? How do you show the desperation of the people? I can almost feel his hand moving swiftly across the paper, trying to capture it all! It reminds me of other artists who depict social scenes, like Honoré Daumier. Artists like these are having a conversation across time, trying to depict the world as they see it. What does it mean to capture feelings of despair and how might we learn from this?