Corner Fifth Avenue 57th Street 1930

Werner Drewes made this print of Corner Fifth Avenue 57th Street using black ink to create an image of urban dynamism. It looks to me like the making of the print has been a process of working both with and against the material. I can imagine Drewes carefully carving into the woodblock, thinking about the push and pull of dark and light, positive and negative space. The high contrast gives the scene a gritty feel; the surface is activated with many different marks and textures, which echo the built environment itself. The artist seems to relish in the physicality of the medium. The angular forms and dynamic composition suggest a city in constant motion, which reminds me a little of some other German Expressionists and the Italian Futurists. Ultimately, artists are always in dialogue with each other, riffing on each other’s ideas and techniques, building a visual language that evolves over time.