View of a Town

1916

Not on view

In this color woodcut, Wadsworth created a complex construction comprising layers of simplified geometric shapes. Using just three colors (gray, blue, and black) as well as the gray color of the paper, he depicted a townscape, most likely of Bradford, in the north. View of a Town is less abstract than his prior work, such as Bradford: View of a Town, in which he engaged a similar subject. Rather than using multiple interlocking lines of various sizes recalling earlier Analytic Cubist depictions of landscapes and similar motifs, in View of a Town, Wadsworth employed a vocabulary of sharp angles and larger flat planes of color. Though the work is still abstract, representational elements—such as chimneys and roofs—are visible to a greater degree than previously.

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Secondary Titles

Provenance

Exhibition History

Title: View of a Town
Artist: Edward Alexander Wadsworth (British, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire 1889–1949)
Date: 1916
Medium: Woodcut on gray paper
Dimensions: Sheet: 6 1/4 × 9 3/4 in. (15.9 × 24.8 cm)
Image: 3 15/16 × 4 5/16 in. (10 × 11 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Purchase, Leslie and Johanna Garfield Gift, Lila Acheson Wallace, Charles and Jessie Price, and David T Schiff Gifts, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, Dolores Valvidia Hurlburt Bequest, PECO Foundation and Friends of Drawings and Prints Gifts, and funds from various donors, 2019
Object Number: 2019.592.305
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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