Tarmac
Edward Alexander Wadsworth British
Not on view
In this nearly abstract image of the Black Country, Wadsworth depicted a dramatic and brutal man-made landscape composed of industrial waste from the region’s factories and coal mines. Slag heaps and other refuse from coal and steel production are rendered as mountainous forms, while furnaces fill the sky with flames and smoke that, along with soot and other pollution, turn the sky dark. Jagged strips cut through the image, indicating areas designed for the passage of materials and people. The title likely refers to developments in road surfacing that involved tarmac, the recently patented material developed by Edgar Purnell Hooley. Wadsworth skillfully utilized the directness of the woodblock to create a nearly expressionist work that can be read as a commentary on the devastation brought by the war.
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