New York 1983

Curator: This somber, grayscale print immediately gives me the impression of a bustling, chaotic city frozen in time. Editor: Indeed. This is "New York," a 1983 woodcut by German-American artist Werner Drewes. Knowing the printmaking process really clarifies my perspective. Curator: Oh, definitely. The deliberate act of carving into the wood, removing material to create these stark contrasts... it emphasizes labor and intention. It's far removed from the sleek glass and steel it represents. I’m curious, why did Drewes, trained in the Bauhaus tradition, turn to cityscape after experimenting so long with abstract art? Editor: The context here is crucial. Think of New York in the 1980s. Rising inequality, urban decay juxtaposed with burgeoning finance. Drewes' abstracted, geometric style mirrors the alienation and rigid structures of a rapidly changing urban landscape. He's capturing a social environment through abstracted form. Curator: So, the simplification down to geometric shapes... is that about rendering labor invisible, erasing the individual stories within those buildings? The city becoming a machine? Editor: It's more nuanced than erasure, perhaps. There is also the potential for community implied by density and adjacency; his is, at once, a city full of lonely windows, and windows looking into other lives. As for his technique, the woodcut seems significant because it links labor to art in a manner unlike other printing methods, where images often become replicable through photographic methods. The material and its laborious use mirrors, perhaps unintentionally, the often hidden forms of manual work supporting New York City and its capitalist industries. Curator: That makes a great deal of sense to me! I see this image not merely as a representation but as a direct embodiment of the era's anxieties and aesthetic trends. I will never look at this work in quite the same manner again. Editor: I'm glad this print resonated. Hopefully, it will inspire our visitors to look critically at art’s connection to society!