09 Engineered America Object Labels

Berenice Abbott (United States, 1898–1991) Murray Hill Hotel: Spiral, 112 Park Avenue, Manhattan, 1935 Gelatin silver print Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Museum purchase Berenice Abbott (United States, 1898–1991) Manhattan Bridge, Looking Up, 1936 Gelatin silver print Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Museum purchase Like many art photographers at the time, Bernice Abbott used her camera to grasp the new metropolis from unusual angles. She pointed her camera straight up and straight down, often working from the rooftops of tall buildings. More interested in the new city structures than atmosphere and weather, she focused her subjects with crisp clarity. Her images express the artist’s wonder at the “new” New York when skyscrapers and suspension bridges were brand new and seemed like structures built by supermen. Berenice Abbott (United States, 1898–1991) Broadway to the Battery From Roof of Irving Trust Co. Building, One Wall Street, 1938 Gelatin silver print Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Museum purchase In the 1920s, during the early years of her career, Berenice Abbott lived in Paris where many Americans artists gathered. In coming home for a family visit in 1929, she was so impressed with the modernization of New York City, that she moved there to capture its transformation. “I really was smitten with New York. . . . There was a tremendous dynamism—it was just as dynamic as anything . . . and that prompted me to photograph it. Anything you photograph has to be exciting visually.” George Ault (United States, 1891–1948) Construction Night, 1922 Oil on canvas

Curtis Galleries, Minneapolis, Minnesota Louis Lozowick (United States, born Russia, 1892–1973) New York, 1925 Oil on canvas Collection of Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Gift of Hudson D. Walker Born in Russia and raised in the United States, Louis Lozowick made this nocturnal painting of New York while living in Weimar Berlin in the 1920s. Attuned to the European’s fascination with things American, Lozowick made paintings of American cities for exhibition abroad. This painting combines the geometric forms of cubism with the angular stylizations of 1920s art deco. The stark black-grey-and-white palette evokes the sheen of electric lights at night and the steel and iron of Manhattan’s signature skyscrapers. John Marin (United States, 1870–1953) Mid-Manhattan, No. 1, 1932 Oil on canvas Des Moines Art Center, Coffin Fine Arts Trust Fund Marin painted images of skyscraper New York as well as scenes in nature. He wrote poetically about what he wanted his city paintings to express. “While these powers are at work pushing, pulling, sideways, downwards, upwards, I can hear the sound of their strife, and there is great music being played. And so I try to express graphically what a great city is doing.”

Georgia O'Keeffe (United States, 1887–1986) Radiator Building-Night, New York, 1923 Oil on canvas Fisk University Galleries, Nashville, Tenn. Man Ray (United States, 1890–1976) New York 17, 1917, refabricated 1966 Chrome-plated bronze and brass and painted brass vise

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn Some artists used humor to interpret the “new” New York of skyscrapers and bridges. Called dadaists—a term referring to the artists’ playfulness and iconoclasm—they often made art of common objects. May Ray screwed slabs of chromed metal in a vice, placed them on a mirrored base, and called his work New York. His compressed skyscraper-like forms and carpenter’s tool wittily interpreted the building boom then underway in Manhattan. His close friendship with Marcel Duchamp, a French dada artist who deeply admired “the country of skyscrapers” and became a naturalized U.S. citizen, inspired Man Ray to consider American engineering as a subject for his art. Charles Sheeler (United States, 1883–1965) New York, Park Row Building, 1920 Gelatin silver print Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Lane Collection John Storrs (United States, 1885–1956) Study in Architectural Forms, about 1923 Marble Collection of Mr. Barney A. Ebsworth Mark Tobey (United States, 1890–1976) Broadway Melody, 1945 Tempera on board University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Roger L. Stevens Mark Tobey, born in 1890, belonged to a generation of artists who came of age in the 1920s when the energy and night time spectacle of New York had already become an important subject for modern artists. Tobey made nocturnal Manhattan his subject, especially the blazing lights on Broadway. The theater district by Times Square was so brightly lit at night that it was known as “The Great White Way.” Tobey dramatically abstracted the bright lights and street traffic, creating a painting of intense animation and visual frenzy.

Max Weber (United States, born Russia, 1881–1961) Abstraction, 1913 Pastel, charcoal, and collage on paper New Britain Museum of American Art, Charles F. Smith Fund Max Weber (United States, born Russia, 1881–1961) New York, 1914 Oil on canvas Curtis Galleries, Minneapolis, Minnesota Max Weber did not paint New York City in literal terms, but in an abstract language drawn from the modern art movements of French cubism and Italian futurism. Using swirling movements, repeated lines, and an agitated picture surface, he offered a visual equivalent for what impressed so many people at the time: Manhattan’s fast-paced street life, tall buildings, and non-stop commotion. Alvin Langdon Coburn (Great Britain, born United States, 1882–1966) The Flatiron Building, New York, 1912 Gelatin silver print Princeton University Art Museum, The Clarence H. White Collection, assembled and organized by Professor Clarence H. White, Jr., and given in memory of Lewis F. White, Dr. Maynard P. White, Sr., and Professor Clarence H. White, Jr., the sons of Clarence H. White, Sr., and Jane Felix White Many photographers, including the Englishman Alvin Langdon Coburn, were attracted to the Flatiron Building, one of New York’s earliest and most distinctive skyscrapers. Built in 1902 on a triangular piece of property, its shape reminded people of the prow of a ship bearing down on traffic at the crossing of Broadway and Fifth Avenue at 23rd Street. It was eventually the image of the heavy irons for pressing clothes that gave the building its popular name—the Flatiron Building. Photographers featured the narrow end of the triangular building. Coburn softened the building’s outlines by picturing it in the haze of twilight. At this early moment in the emergence of skyscrapers, photographers and artists alike saw the building through the lens of nature. Soon, however, art photographers adopted a modern

vocabulary of crisp focus, bold outlines, and abstracting compositions to starkly convey the new conditions of the skyscraper city. Alfred Stieglitz (United States, 1864–1946) The City of Ambition, 1910 Photogravure San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Collection Alfred Stieglitz (United States, 1864–1946) From the Window of 291, 1915 Platinum print The Art Institute of Chicago, Alfred Stieglitz Collection Alfred Stieglitz (United States, 1864–1946) From My Window at the Shelton, North, 1931 Gelatin silver print The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles Alfred Stieglitz (United States, 1864–1946) Night - New York, 1931 Gelatin silver print Princeton University Art Museum, Gift of Ansel Adams, in honor of David Hunter McAlpin, Class of 1920 Architecture critic Claude Bragdon, who was a neighbor to Stieglitz in the Shelton Hotel, wrote in 1925: “Not only is the skyscraper a symbol of American spirit—restless, centrifugal, perilously poised—but it is the only true original development in the field of architecture to which we can lay unchallenged claim.” Bragdon, like many others, considered the skyscraper America’s greatest contributions to the history of architecture. Alfred Stieglitz (United States, 1864–1946) From the Shelton, about 1931-32 Gelatin silver print

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles Alfred Stieglitz (United States, 1864–1946) New York from the Shelton, 1935 Chloride print The Art Institute of Chicago, Alfred Stieglitz Collection In 1924, Alfred Stieglitz, the photographer, and Georgia O’Keeffe, the painter, married and the following year, they moved into an apartment on the 28th floor of one of New York’s first residential skyscrapers, the Shelton Hotel. To improve their already breathtaking views, they moved in 1927 to the 30th floor which gave both artists new vistas to paint and photograph. Stieglitz wrote his friend writer Sherwood Anderson: “We live up high in the Shelton. . . We feel as if we were out at midocean.” Margaret Bourke-White (United States, 1904–1971) March of the Dynamos, Niagara Falls Power Co., 1928 Gelatin silver print Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Gift of Margaret Bourke-White and LIFE magazine In 1927 Bourke-White began an extended series of work focused on American industry. She photographed production and heavy equipment at various sites, including the Otis Steel Company mill in Cleveland and the Niagara Falls Power Company plant in upstate New York. She portrayed them as places of fierce energy and streamlined beauty. Here, Bourke-White celebrates the gleaming steel surfaces and powerful machinery as new American icons. Charles Demuth (United States, 1883–1935) End of the Parade, Coatesville, Pa., 1920 Tempera and pencil on composition board Collection of Ed Schein Charles Demuth (United States, 1883–1935) Lancaster, 1921 Tempera and pencil on paper board

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Room of Contemporary Art Fund, 1944 Many believed that the United States had the engineering prowess and business efficiency to embrace modernity in ways the Old World of Europe could not. The American painter Charles Demuth wrote from Paris to his friends back home: “New York is something which Europe is not. . . . Marcel [Duchamp] and all the others, those who count, say that all the ‘modern’ is to us, and of course they are right.” When Demuth returned from Europe, he began to paint the factories and industrial buildings he had easy access to in his hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Charles Demuth (United States, 1883–1935) Buildings, Lancaster, 1930 Oil and graphite on composition board Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Gift of an anonymous donor European architects were among the first to admire modern American factories, seeing beauty in their undecorated surfaces, flat roofs, and simple geometries. In these structures, form expressed function. Their new reputation as aesthetically pleasing structures attracted the painter Charles Demuth. In this work he concentrates not only on the engineering skill and efficiency of the American factory—in this case, a feed plant—but also on the billboard, an advertising medium that matured during the 1920s. The red, white, and blue color scheme underscores the Americanness of this modern image. Arthur Dove (United States, 1880–1946) Silver Tanks and Moon, 1930 Oil and silver paint on canvas Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Alfred Stieglitz Collection Joseph Stella (United States, born Italy, 1877–1946) American Landscape (Gas Tank), 1918 Oil on canvas Collection Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Gift of Roy R. Neuberger

In 1916, the Italian-born immigrant artist, Joseph Stella, lived in a factory district nears the Brooklyn Bridge. Impressed by the looming structure of the bridge and by modern engineering, Stella took up American industry as a subject for his art, something he called the “steely orchestra of modern constructions.”

Berenice Abbott (United States, 1898–1991) Hardware Store, 316-318 Bowery, Manhattan, January 26, 1938, 1938 Gelatin silver print Private collection Stuart Davis (United States, 1892–1964) Odol, 1924 Oil on cardboard The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Mary Sisler Bequest (by exchange) and purchase After World War I, manufacturers began streamlining the designs of consumer goods and the graphics used in packaging them. Odol, a mouthwash popular in the 1920s, came in a distinctive milk-white bottle, its name displayed in stark modern lettering. Davis used a cubist style to make this modern still-life of a contemporary product. Davis also painted still lives of modern household conveniences such as the light bulb, the telephone, and the electric fan.

Charles Demuth (United States, 1883–1935) Poster Portrait: Dove, 1924 Oil on wood panel Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University Charles Demuth (United States, 1883–1935) Poster Portrait: Marin, 1926 Oil on wood panel Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

Marcel Duchamp (United States, born France, 1887–1968) In Advance of the Broken Arm, 1964 (after 1915 original) Aluminum, sheet metal, and wood shovel Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, Partial gift of Mrs. William Conroy The French artist Marcel Duchamp first arrived in New York in 1915. He was a very perceptive student of American culture and encouraged New York artists to recognize the modern features of their country. He was particularly captivated by American products that were well designed and made life easier—be it plumbing fixtures or snow shovels. Duchamp created a new kind of art form out of such goods. He bought an American snow shovel—standard in hardware stores but a novelty to the native Frenchman—titled it, and put it on display in his studio. He called his altered, store bought objects his “readymades.” Marcel Duchamp (United States, born France, 1887–1968) Traveler's Folding Item, 1964 (after lost 1916 original) Plastic Collection of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the State Art Museum of Florida This sculpture was one of Duchamp’s “readymades”—a common American staple re-imagined as a work of art. This particular readymade was originally the boxy cover for an Underwood typewriter. Shiny and pliable, the cover was decidedly modern in material and design, even a bit surreal, and most certainly luxurious to French eyes. For Duchamp, it epitomized what made American consumer products so forward-looking and distinctive.

Charles Sheeler (United States, 1883–1965) Champion Spark Plug, about 1920s Gelatin silver print Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Lane Collection “Almost immediately upon coming to America,” the French painter Francis Picabia wrote on his second visit to New York in 1915, “it flashed on me that the genius of the modern world is machinery and

that through machinery art ought to find a most vivid expression.” Spark plugs were among the American “machines” Picabia most admired, and that same year he produced a “portrait” of a young American girl as a spark plug. A few years later, the Champion spark plug company hired the American artist Charles Sheeler to photograph its product. Sheeler was known for sharply focused pictures of industrial sites and equipment, a style he brought to this commercial assignment. Charles Sheeler (United States, 1883–1965) L.C. Smith Typewriter, about 1920s Gelatin silver print Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Lane Collection Ralph Steiner (United States, 1899–1986) Typewriter keys, 1921, printed 1945 Gelatin silver print Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Warren and Margot Coville Collection In the 1920s and 1930s, artists and writers talked about living in a Machine Age. American engineering feats and new consumer products were celebrated as ultra-modern and ultra-chic. Photographer Ralph Steiner trained his lens on the newly portable typewriter, and his crisp focus, strong black-and-white contrast, and off-balanced composition created an abstract and modern image out of a Machine-Age product.

Edward Weston (United States, 1886–1958) Excusado, Mexico, 1925 Gelatin silver print Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Edward Weston Archive, Anonymous gift Artifact case of “American Thing;” safety razor, electric toaster, first digital clock, electric alarm clock, etc. American writer Sinclair Lewis, in his 1922 novel Babbitt, recorded the lust for modern things in the United States. Babbitt, the book’s protagonist, desired “these standard advertised wares; toothpaste,

socks, tires, cameras, instantaneous hot-water heaters, were his symbols and proof of excellence.” The artifacts in this case show some of the products and conveniences new to American households in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s. Artists, as well as regular citizens, were not immune to the appeal of the new gadgetry and its advertising.