Riveters c. 1940

John Holmes's print, Riveters, uses strong, diagonal lines to suggest both height and the precarious positions of the workers. I imagine the artist's hand moving across the metal plate, pushing and pulling to create the image. Holmes’s riveters are caught in this web of girders, focused on their task but also part of a larger structure. I bet he was thinking about the relationship between the individual and the collective, and how the labor of many creates something monumental. See how he uses the white of the paper as light, catching on the workers’ helmets and the edges of the beams? It gives the scene a kind of gritty realism. Prints like this make me think about other artists who depicted industry, like Diego Rivera. Each artist builds on the work of those who came before. And what’s left is always a testament to the artist’s touch, where the hand hesitates, lingers, or boldly declares itself.