Street Singers

Edward Alexander Wadsworth

ca. 1914 · Woodcut · Drawings and Prints

Street Singers is the only figurative work from Wadsworth’s Vorticist period. While the title and orientation of the forms link the print to the visible world—in particular, public street performers—the three figures are so reductive, angular, and hard-edged that they recall mechanical parts, such as those in Newcastle. Reinforcing the connection between the works are the interlocking geometric dark gray and black patches, which resemble metallic machinery bits. Despite utilizing an aesthetic that evokes the power and impersonal qualities of contemporary industry, Wadsworth’s prints were decidedly handmade and his technique—woodcutting—the oldest within printmaking. He admired the precision of woodcut, claiming it "appeals to me more than any of the other similar mediums (etchings, lithographs, mezzotints etc.) . . . [because] it leaves nothing at all to accident."

Artist

Edward Alexander Wadsworth

Date

ca. 1914

Medium

Woodcut

Department

Drawings and 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