Night - Queens- "Stop" 1934

James Penney made this intaglio print, “Night - Queens - ‘Stop’” in 1954. It’s a dense and vibrant image, all grays and blacks, built up through a kind of patient frenzy of lines and marks. You get the sense of him really digging into that plate, scraping and hatching and cross-hatching to create this world. The texture is palpable. You can almost feel the grit of the city night. I’m drawn to the way he renders the streetlights, each one a halo of radiating lines, or the little ‘OIL’ sign hanging on a building with its arrow pointing somewhere. It's these details, so lovingly rendered, that give the piece its unique character. I think of other artists who captured the city’s pulse like Jacob Lawrence, but Penney brings a different, more personal vision to this urban landscape. Ultimately, "Night - Queens - 'Stop'" is a reminder that art isn’t about replicating reality, but about offering a unique way of seeing and feeling it.