NYCScene

A doubleheader, Brooklyn Bridge Week, Day 7 (Friday)

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Closing out Brooklyn Bridge Week, I had two prints left by different artists (as well as a bunch of others that were rejected early on), and I just couldn’t make up my mind. So you get a bonus image today. As we started it with Stow Wengenroth, his last Brooklyn Bridge print will be one of the two. (Don’t worry, I’ll take a break from Wengenroth for a while now, after posting 4 of his prints in the past week!) The other is a second print of the bridge by John Taylor Arms (Remember “Cobwebs”?)

Compare today’s “Gates of the City” by Arms to Wengenroth’s “Brooklyn Bridge” Very much the same view, same angle, both beautiful textured pictures, yet quite different. Arms zooms in on the cables as seen through the arches close up, and his brick texture is detailed yet different from Wengenroth’s.

Wengenroth’s today is a night view called “Manhattan Gateway”. The fog and the time of day give the picture such a different feel. Look at the diffuse aura of the gas streetlamps, and the lights of the city in the background–even as reflected on the water of the East River. The texture of the wrought iron fence is highlighted here.

And thus we say farewell to Brooklyn Bridge Week! Back to a more varied “diet” starting on Saturday.

“Gates of the City” (Etching, 1922) and “Manhattan Gateway” (Lithograph, 1948)

“Le pont du Brooklyn”, Brooklyn Bridge Week, day 6 (Thursday)

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Even if I didn’t like the print, I’d be tempted to include one with this title. This is the first time this artist’s work will be seen on this blog. Jean Michel Mathieux-Marie (such a quintessentially French name) was born in 1947, and initially trained as an architect at the École Nationale Supérieure Des Beaux-Arts [National School of Fine Arts, reputed to be the best art school in France. As an aside, the Beaux-Arts (as it is called) was formed by the merger in 1793 of the Royal Academy of Architecture (founded 1671) and the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (founded 1648).] Within two years of graduating, he started learning drypoint engraving, which remains his preferred technique. Typical drypoint engraving (e.g. Martin Lewis) is done with a metal stylus on a soft copper plate. (Nowadays, apparently dental tools are among the more popular implements used.) Mathieux-Marie uses a diamond-tipped tool to engrave on a hard steel plate, which is unusual. It’s tough to find information on less well known contemporary artists like this, so this is all I know.

You may remember that drypoint is essentially a form of engraving using a fine needle or stylus, as opposed to traditional engraving, done with a broader gouge-like tool called a burin. Drypoint is much closer to drawing, which makes it especially attractive to artists who want to dabble in printmaking, and haven’t devoted considerable time to learning to use the burin.

I love this picture because of the angle from which the bridge is portrayed. Most pictures we’ve seen have been views along the bridge from on it. A couple have been side views. This is the only I’ve seen so far from below on the side. It has all of the texture of the Wengenroth prints we’ve looked at, plus the bottom surface of the bridge deck. In addition, we get to see the lower portion of the main towers. And don’t forget the texture of the clouds and the sky.

Le pont du Brooklyn (Drypoint, 2005)

“High arches” (No, not feet!), Wengenroth, Brooklyn Bridge Week, day 5 (Wednesday)

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The Amazing Stow Wengenroth. This print of the Brooklyn Bridge is from very much the same angle as the first of this week, “Brooklyn Bridge in Winter”, though on a sunny day, without any snow in sight. The textures are again remarkable: the cables, the brick of the towers, the pattern of the wires in the left background (which reminds me of yesterday’s print by JT Arms, “Cobwebs”), the tall buildings seen through the left hand arch, partially through the web of cables on the left. The shadows of the cables falling on the wooden decking are exquisite. The subtle and not so subtle variations are kind of amazing.

High Arches (Lithograph, 1960)

“Cobwebs”, Brooklyn Bridge Week, Day 4 (Tuesday)

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John Taylor Arms was recognized in his own time as a master etcher. Here’s one of his two prints of the Brooklyn Bridge–this one is quite different from those we’ve already looked at, but also beautiful. The two Wengenroth prints we’ve looked at of the bridge are both looking along the bridge from on it, whereas the Bosman and this are from the side; the Bosman was a night view, and this is a day view.

Cobwebs (Etching, 1921)

Stow Wengenroth aGAIN? Brooklyn Bridge Week, Day 3 (Monday)

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I have a lot of Brooklyn Bridge prints to choose from, but Wengenroth takes the cake–so much so, that I’m going to risk us possibly overdosing on him this week. Today, we’ll look at a print from 1950 which shows the symmetry of the arches, framing some tall Manhattan buildings. Those buildings are seen through a latticework formed by the suspension cables on both sides. The sky is cloudy, producing shadows on the bridge as well as a dramatic view behind the main towers of the bridge. Again, the textures are exquisite: the wooden decking and fencing on the right; the rivets in the steel beam on the left; and just as in the Brooklyn Bridge in Winter print from Saturday, the cables in the foreground and the bricks of the main towers.

Brooklyn Bridge (Lithograph, 1950)

Brooklyn Bridge Week Day 2 (Week 14, Sunday)

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After looking at the Wengenroth print I posted yesterday, of the Brooklyn Bridge in Winter, I was struck by the memory of how many bridge pictures I’d seen, and thought it might be fun to do a series of pictures of bridges. Then I remembered how many Brooklyn Bridge prints I’d seen by artists I was already in love with. Even allowing myself a week and limiting myself to the Brooklyn Bridge, I still have quite a bit more than a weeks’ worth. I think more than a week on one topic, though, is probably a bit much, so I’ll make this Brooklyn Bridge Week (with yesterday being retroactively designated as day 1).

Today I’m going back to Richard Bosman. The most recent print of his we’ve looked at was, in fact, the Manhattan Bridge with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background, done in black and white rather than his characteristic color. Today’s print is done in black, white and one color. Enjoy one of Bosman’s several portrayals of the Brooklyn Bridge (of which we’re only going to look at one this week).

The Brooklyn Bridge (Woodcut, 1996)

Brooklyn in the Snow: Week 14, Saturday

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Here’s another Wengenroth print I’ve been saving to share on the right occasion, not knowing exactly what the right occasion would be. It’s another snow scene, so I wanted to share it on a snowy day. Check! But even better…it’s the Brooklyn Bridge in the snow….and we happen to be staying in Brooklyn, just 2 miles from the Brooklyn Bridge. Check check!

Wengenroth was born and raised in Brooklyn. Different sources have given me different stories for where he lived his adult life. One version said he lived in Brooklyn till a few years before he died.

The print is a fairly close view of a man bundled up for the weather , walking head down across the bridge. Because this is a closer view than most of his pictures, his attention to detail in textures is even more apparent. Look at the bridge cables, especially the one in the right foreground. Look at the snow on the bridge cables and on the gas streetlamp, and of course the bricks of the bridge arches. Look at the textured rather than individual bridge suspension cables on right and left in the background of the print. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do!

Brooklyn Bridge in Winter (Lithograph, 1959)

A little Manhattan nostalgia: Monday

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I dug into the oeuvre of a new-to-me etcher this weekend. Susan Pyzow is a native New Yorker, and many of her prints are set in NYC. She does a level of detail similar to Wengenroth, but with a very different texture, which is pleasing by virtue of it’s difference and intrinsically. I selected today’s print because the subject is a place somewhat familiar to me–the Jefferson Market area, around 6th Av and W 10th Street. My grandmother lived on W. 11th Street between 5th and 6th Av, and she did much of her shopping at the Jefferson Market, a somewhat “gourmet” grocery store which was a neighborhood landmark for decades. The immediate area took on the Jefferson Market name, and a branch of the NY Public Library at 6th and 10th was called the Jefferson Market branch of the library. It was itself a historic building–a former courthouse with a very distinctive and beautiful appearance. Pyzow has a nice print of the north end of the library as seen (I think) from W 10th St. It evokes that area and that era for me–visiting my grandmother and being given luscious desserts, and walking around that portion of Greenwich Village.

Jefferson Market (Etching, 2017)

Another Martin Lewis nocturnal scene–he really excels at this: week 11, day 4 (Tuesday)

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This is one of my favorite Martin Lewis prints. He does so well with the night scenes, especially in New York City. This one is set in Astoria, Queens–a neighborhood in which I lived while I was in grad school. The quality of the light, the shadows–and most of all the texture of the material of which the bridge is made. It all adds up to amazing atmosphere. The technique is drypoint, which as you may remember, is an engraving technique using a very fine stylus, which can produce very textured prints.

Arch, Midnight (Drypoint, 1930)

New York Noir–Richard Bosman in black and white: week 10, day 7

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Richard Bosman has been a favorite because of his bold colors, used in interesting ways. (Many of his prints use 1-3 colors, each in various shades.) I’ve shown four of his pieces including my very first share-a-print post!

He does do some exclusively black-and-white prints, and when idly scanning through some of hisB&W prints on his website, my eye was caught by a print I’d undoubtedly seen before but not really noticed. This is one of a series of five prints of New York City places, all with this “white on black” style (as opposed to typical prints which are “black on white”, i.e. white background with black ink printed on it). He calls these five prints “New York Noir”. This style appeals to me more now than the first time I saw it, and this one print in particular really stands out.

Today’s print shows a bridge with another bridge and a mass of lit buildings behind it. The twin towers are in this picture from 1998. if I’m reconstructing this correctly in my mind, the foreground bridge is the Manhattan Bridge and the background bridge is the Brooklyn Bridge, with the WTC towers behind it . Those of you who know the city better are welcome to correct me.

New York Noir Bridge (Woodcut, 1998)