East River 1946

Curator: Lawrence Nelson Wilbur’s 1946 etching, "East River," offers a detailed view of New York’s bustling harbor. Editor: It's remarkably dense, isn’t it? Almost oppressive in its depiction of industry. All those ships and warehouses seem to press in on you. Curator: That density speaks to the era. The etching technique, with its fine lines, captures the gritty reality of postwar industrial activity. Consider the material constraints—etching on metal, a process demanding intense labor mirroring the depicted labor on the docks. Editor: True, but consider also what these icons represented then. Bridges as emblems of connection, ships of commerce, signs that everything broken by the war, here, will again become whole and new. This is the dream made steel and stone, isn't it? Curator: Or rather, a monument to materiality: see the varied modes of transportation – ships, trains, trucks. The system of material distribution – its reliance on labor and mechanical interfaces between bodies, machines and landscape. Editor: Indeed, and while this work documents those material processes, I see, even through the smoky atmosphere conjured by those fine lines, that promise in this new, reconstructed world of productivity and the symbolic power the City exerts on those that move product through its veins. What an intricate symbol! Curator: Perhaps we romanticize the symbolic when we neglect the systems facilitating its conveyance. Consider the degradation of the plate and materials as a mirror of real erosion of place. But this consideration helps appreciate it on all levels: a record, then and now. Editor: And, ultimately, perhaps both realities are inextricably linked here. Thank you, I never considered these implications together before! Curator: Of course! I’ve been viewing the subject only through your particular lens today; that has altered my understanding of this work immeasurably.