Modern Music 1933 - 1936

Albert Potter made this print, Modern Music, sometime in the first half of the 20th century. Look at the way he's carved out all these stark figures, packed in tight like sardines on the subway. You can almost feel the claustrophobia, the energy of the crowd, the city just glimpsed through the window. I imagine Potter, leaning over his block, carefully chipping away, figuring out how to capture the light and shadow, the faces, the ads, and the headlines. The crispness of the linework reminds me of some German Expressionist prints, but with a distinctly American flavor. There's a kind of social commentary here, too, a sense of the times – the anxieties, the buzz. Artists are always riffing off each other, picking up on ideas, pushing them in new directions. Potter's got this urban scene, a slice of life, and he's using the graphic language of printmaking to make it sing, or maybe shout. It’s a reminder that art can be a powerful form of witnessing and understanding.