Martin Lewis
Which Way?
1931
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Martin Lewis
Which Way?
1931
Physical Qualities
Aquatint, Sheet: 362 x 489 mm. (14 1/4 x 19 1/4 in.)
Plate: 262 x 402 mm. (10 5/16 x 15 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Purchased as the gift of Dr. Thomas H. Powell in Memory of Dr. William W. More
Object Number
2011.155
This print bookend a time of great upheaval and despair. Kerr Eby’s print depicts an ominous cloud hanging over a mass of soldiers representing the retreat of the German army through the ravaged fields of France in 1918 as World War I came to a close. That cloud, which was said to follow the German soldiers for days, was dubbed “the cloud of blood.”
Martin Lewis’ print shows a snowy nighttime scene in rural America. A car that has lost its way shines its headlights on a snowbank at an apparent dead end. Which Way? was created in 1932, a time when Americans were praying for a way out of the Great Depression. Looking for answers, they found only dead ends. The hollowness of victory, as well as the toll that war takes on both people and the landscape, is matched by uncertainty about the future of America.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 2011; William P. Carl Fine Prints, Northampton, MA; a Texas Collection
Rena Hoisington, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "New Arrivals: Gifts of Art for a New Century," February 7-May 8, 2016.
Inscribed: lower right in graphite: "Martin Lewis"
