Medical Center, NY 1930

Herbert Ferber made this print of the Medical Center, NY, with etching in 1930. Look at how the mass of buildings rises up from the landscape, etched with strokes of varying pressure and direction; it's almost as if the city is growing organically from the earth. I can imagine Ferber, hunched over a metal plate, carefully incising each line with a needle, building up the image bit by bit, and losing himself in the details of each tiny window. The sky is made up of these soft, cloud-like strokes that almost look like smoke – a vision of urban life, a world of vertical lines, softened by atmospheric touch. It makes me think about other artists like Joseph Stella and his sharp metallic lines. This print feels like a moment captured, a way of seeing and feeling the city that is unique to Ferber and his time, and which speaks to us now. Artists are always in conversation with one another, aren't they?