View of a Town
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
- 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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