Untitled (Country-Bailing Hay) c. 1938 - 1948

Editor: This is an intriguing piece entitled "Untitled (Country-Bailing Hay)" by Lynd Kendall Ward, dating roughly from 1938 to 1948. It’s a woodcut print, and I'm immediately struck by the strong contrast between the textures, the geometric rigor against the organic softness. How would you interpret the impact of these combined formal qualities? Curator: The image is striking due to the stark contrast within the medium itself. The very nature of woodcut printing allows for this striking duality of light and shadow. Consider how the artist has treated space here, in the traditional and limited dimensions within a woodcut artwork. Editor: Space? Curator: Note the heavy foreground where laborers place a pipe and the receding hay bales on the right where agricultural labor persists in more traditional fashion. Does the sharp geometric construction of the earth that has been excavated contrast against the volumetric haystack shapes in the background? Editor: It really does. It creates a very stark visual tension and implies changing rural lives! I hadn't considered it as the interplay of traditional vs. new farming until now. Curator: Precisely. Reflect upon the significance of that implied dialogue through Ward's arrangement of geometric form meeting nature's waveforms, from field, to hay, to cloud. Editor: The focus on formal properties really opens up this image. I am more aware of the contrast and tensions, both material and metaphorical. Curator: A close formal reading makes the inherent visual syntax of the woodcut print both sensible and expressive, wouldn't you agree? Editor: Absolutely. It makes me want to look closer at more woodcuts to notice all these interesting tensions.