Movement—Grain Elevators, No. 1 1916

John Marin made this etching, using delicate lines to capture something he saw in grain elevators, like a memory or a feeling. You can almost feel him, can’t you? Bent over the plate, carefully making marks, scratching lines that try to keep up with his thinking. I bet he started with a single line. Look at how it zigzags on the right – tentative, but building to something. Then there are the angular lines – less descriptive and more like, you know, emotional jots. It's like he's trying to find the essence of these huge structures, not just what they look like, but what they *feel* like. Marin did so many cityscapes, all about movement and energy. It's a conversation he’s having with other artists, like the cubists, all trying to break down what we see into something new. It’s this constant push and pull – what can a line do? What can it say? The painting is never really finished; it’s just a pause in the ongoing discussion.