Queensboro Bridge, NY c. 1940

Editor: Here we have Morgan Dennis’s “Queensboro Bridge, NY” from around 1940, a print made using the etching technique. There’s almost a haunting quality to this piece because the bridge looms so large above the tugboats on the water. What draws your eye when you look at it? Curator: The dominance of line. Dennis masterfully employs hatching and cross-hatching to delineate form and evoke tonal variation. Consider the intricate latticework of the bridge contrasted with the smoother planes of the tugboats; a sophisticated command of graphic language is displayed. What structural relationships can be derived? Editor: Well, the bridge creates these strong, diagonal lines moving from the top left towards the bottom right, whereas the tugboats provide these shorter, horizontal lines that anchor the bottom of the print. It's as though we, the viewers, are made to feel quite small and perhaps insignificant? Curator: Precisely. The work’s composition orchestrates the dialogue between mass and void, light and shadow. Is it possible to read the industrial presence against organic vitality by analyzing this contrast, specifically, between the structural rigor and the atmospheric haze? Editor: Yes, the upper portion has heavier and darker lines versus the lower area, where lines are fewer and farther between and there's more light. You almost don't notice the smokestacks at first because of the imposing structure. That darker shading adds an imposing weight. I am so used to considering historical context that I hadn't spent much time looking at just how the image is constructed. Curator: Exactly. To see is to think, is to know. That which first appeared elusive and indistinct now attains a profound visual vocabulary. The essence of the artwork unfolds. Editor: It is kind of amazing to break it down like this. I have definitely gained an entirely new awareness of just how deliberate these design choices are. Thanks.