The first ever representative monograph by the painter Maurice Wade (1917-1991), whose life theme was the industrial landscape of Middle England. In his plates, the silhouettes of ceramic factory chimneys, canal banks, streets and entire city districts, railway lines, factory complexes, and landfills come to life with the last precise stroke of his spatula. All this in rich shades of grey, black, brown, dark red. In addition to reproductions of more than 100 paintings, the world of the master of "industrial minimalism" is also brought closer by a set of unique family photographs and facsimiles of documents and drawings from his notebook.
"When asked why I paint the way I do, i.e. mostly formalistically, with an emphasis on geometric shapes and sombre tones of colour, I answer that this is how I can best capture a given situation. I insist that the work should have a structural purpose and be strong in expression and colour. I feel that the human being has no place in these paintings. It's enough if he can make present above the apparent immobility the seed of human sensitivity, the real meaning of what is captured, a different view than that reflected on the surface of the canals. I try to create an image that reveals reality more realistically than the most accurate reproduction, a work that in a strange way balances between dream and reality."