Lights and Plane Parts c. 1940s

Ralston Crawford made this drawing, “Lights and Plane Parts,” with ink on paper. I love how the simple cross-hatching transforms the composition into an intricate, almost mechanical landscape. You can sense him building up the forms slowly, through methodical strokes. What was he thinking? Was he trying to capture the essence of something solid, maybe something as solid as an aircraft? It feels like a puzzle, doesn’t it? I’m thinking about the way we piece together our own understanding of the world, one line, one shape, one shadow at a time. Crawford and artists of his generation were clearly inspired by the precision of machines, and the way they repeat shapes. It made them want to make their own structures of meaning.