Fish Pier 1953

Winifred Milius Lubell made this linocut print, "Fish Pier," sometime around 1953. I can almost feel the artist carving into that linoleum block, wrestling with the material to bring this scene to life. Look at the bold contrasts of black and white, the way she’s used those lines to create texture and depth. It’s like she’s not just showing us a fish pier but also the grit and labor of the people who work there. I imagine she wanted to show their effort. The way she captures the light is particularly striking. It's almost as though Lubell is in conversation with the German Expressionist woodcut artists, like Schmidt-Rottluff, but she's doing her own thing, finding her voice through this medium. Thinking about all the artists working in different mediums, across time, inspiring each other – it’s an ongoing exchange, isn’t it? Each mark, each choice is part of a larger conversation, a way of seeing and feeling the world.