REDO - ABSTRACT

1) Description

"Louis Lozowick, Construction, c. 1930”

Louis Lozowick's piece, titled "Construction" is a lithograph combining several drawings of various scenes that you could find at a construction site. In this piece, I particularly found two distinct ones, but there could possibly be more. At the top of the piece, it shows a construction worker loading something on the back of a truck. In the background of this scene is a skyscraper. Based on the lighting of this scene, I assume that it is at night because of the way the truck and building is highlighted. Under the scene with the truck, There is a huge stack of wood. To the left of this are two or three possibly separate scenes. At the bottom if a pile of wood, in the middle is a group of people working on sawing or cutting the wood, or possibly assembling them into a fence. Above these workers is a cameraman, possibly taking progress pictures of the building to be created. And to the right of the stack of wood is harder to see, but it is a ladder placed against a wall or some type of construct. I cann't see or identify where this ladder would possibly be placed.

2) Analysis

Although Lozowick wasn't considered as a strictly "abstract" artist, I picked this piece as my abstract art piece because although the shapes and forms in this piece are geometrically/anatomically accurate, the combination of these shapes and forms create a scene that wouldn't be possible in real life. I think the most utilized principle here is contrast. I can identify two different distinct scenes in this piece because of how Lozowick played with the value of shades he uses to create the scene. The top scene has significantly less contrast or difference in color value than the bottom scene. From this I can see that the top scene is set in the night, and the bottom in the day. In addition to value, Lozowick takes advantage of his usage of space. Almost all of the piece is filled with positive space. For the most part, the piece has a grainy texture created through the lithographic process, however there are some breaks in almost-solid colors and textured objects which creates a sense of dominance, with the dominant element as these textured objects. For example, in the bottom scene, the black and white chunks create the form of the stacks of wood, which become the most prominent objects in that scene.

3) Interpretation

From what I can see, this piece illustrates a contrast in two different scenes that are prominent in construction of large, modern-day buildings. However, when I look at this piece, I feel a sense of chaos and disorganization amidst a supposedly rigid and structured process. Although the wood is stacked in such a way that prevents it from falling, it acts as if it is holding up the ground above it, including the truck and the skyscraper in the background of the truck scene. The ladder looks like it is trying to support this stack of wood as well. Looking at this makes me feel as if the structure could collapse at any point in time. I believe issues surrounding proper building regulations and structures were prevalent at the time. I could possibly look deeper into this and say that this structure could represent the concept of urban development itself, and despite how much the process has grown, its a chaotic phenomenon that sometimes promotes more disorder than order. Such as the issue of urban sprawl or even gentrification.

4) Judgement

I'm not entirely sure if this piece can be improved on at all. This might be a personal fault, but I'm not sure what the guy is loading onto the truck in the top scene. If that object could be defined a little more clearly, it could make interpreting that section a little easier. Despite that, I think that this piece meets the goals of Lozowick and the goals of Precisionism. This piece was meant to depict the life and aesthetic of American construction, which was incredibly prevalent at the time, when cities were being expanded and renovated at a tremendous rate. I think what this piece does well is the depiction of construction as opposed to the actual finished structures themselves. I think this piece gives a good peek at the underlying process rather than what is already obvious to the viewer.