The Gun-Testing Ground 1917

Curator: Joseph Pennell’s graphite drawing and print, "The Gun-Testing Ground," dates from 1917. It depicts what appears to be an artillery factory or testing facility during World War I. Editor: My initial impression? A stark premonition. Even rendered in soft graphite, there’s something profoundly unsettling about the sheer volume of weaponry. It feels like the earth itself is trembling beneath this industry of war. Curator: Indeed. Consider the material implications. The rapid industrialization of warfare during this period demanded unprecedented extraction of resources—iron ore, coal, nitrates. These materials were wrenched from the earth, fueling a cycle of production, destruction, and ultimately, consumption on a horrific scale. Editor: The composition really leads the eye. The foreground shows individual guns being prepped, almost quaint. But behind, it's this organized chaos, the mass production… It makes me wonder, did Pennell intend to show the transformation of war, from individual acts to an industrialized process? The scale shift is quite dramatic. Curator: Perhaps. Pennell worked as a propagandist during the war, and his images frequently depicted the industrial might of the Allied forces. It is quite likely he intended to convey an image of power and organization. Editor: Hmm, but look at the rendering itself. The sketchiness, the frenetic energy of the lines, that reads to me as anxious. It seems he's grappling with something, not just celebrating it. All this machinery, for what? It feels devoid of any sense of romanticism. Just cold, hard… graphite, ironically. Curator: The graphite, the printmaking process itself – these are key. These techniques allowed for rapid reproduction, dissemination, for broader circulation of his vision. It becomes a tool of mass persuasion. Pennell made many lithographs of the Panama Canal; these share a similar, awe-inspiring portrayal of industry. Editor: So, even the medium reinforces your point about consumption and process! Thinking about that bleak horizon and those masses of artillery, I can’t help feeling it all weighs down on humanity in Pennell's depiction. The world remade in graphite dust and shadows. Curator: A fitting reflection, I think. It is a rather brutal snapshot of industry.