Harvesting Rice 1937

Anna Heyward Taylor made this woodcut, Harvesting Rice, with simple tools, and a keen eye for form. The high contrast of black and white carves out this scene. Look at the negative space, those white lines that define the rice stalks. It's like she’s thinking through subtraction, carving away at the block to reveal the image underneath. This print has a real sense of labor in it. The figures are bent, active, each mark precise, yet rough hewn, contributing to this feeling. The way the white ink is pressed onto the paper gives a tactile sense of the artist's hand at work. The hats floating in the background are like ghostly halos, hovering above the action. This print shares a certain visual economy with the work of artists like Käthe Kollwitz. Both artists use the graphic power of printmaking to convey the human condition. Taylor’s image reminds us that art is about making choices, and inviting viewers to engage with those choices. Nothing is fixed, everything is open to interpretation.