We Love New York

With her usual eye for satire, Mabel Dwight depicts a crowded movie theater, in which a man picks up his coat and hat and decidedly pushes his way through the audience before the film is over. The audience members sitting behind him twist and stretch their bodies so that they can watch the final close up of two lovers passionately embracing, which was typically the final scene of films in this era. A man in the audience falls asleep as a woman behind him swoons at the silver screen.

A deceptively casual view on daily indignities of modern life, it is important to consider the context in which this lithograph is situated. In 1928, cinema was a new medium and social phenomenon that was indicative of an evolving, modernized society. The moving picture’s advent as an art form and channel for mass entertainment heralded an age of new technologies, changing social structures and urbanity. Though the scene Dwight depicts here—a man rudely encumbering a view at the cinema—might seem like a familiar issue in this age, it was one that, in context, implied the unstoppable progression of modernity and rapidly accelerating social change.

Collections: Bibliothèque Nationale, Fogg, MoMA, Philadelphia, Whitney, Wolfsonian, Yale

This impression from early edition of 15 printed in 1929, a later edition of 10 (numbered I-X) was printed in 1972

Known for his work capturing a burgeoning urban American landscape, Louis Lozowick was deeply fascinated by the rapid evolution of New York City’s skyline. He was a pioneer of Precisionist and Constructivist aesthetics, and was fascinated by the dynamic modernism of American bridges and skyscrapers. Born in Ukraine, Lozowick first emigrated to the United States in 1912. In this print, Lozowick offers us a glimpse of Madison Avenue as it looked in 1929. Employing the visual indicators of modernity, Lozowick draws out his view of the city in rhythmic angles and patterns, interrupted by a smattering of automobiles and a water tank in the foreground. The tone is one of hope for America’s industrial and urban future—it is a call to action that was effectively answered in subsequent years.

Collections: Smithsonian, Yale

Based on a painting and storybook of the same name, Faith Ringgold’s Tar Beach tells the story of a young African-American girl in New York, whose dreams of flight provide her with a sense of personal freedom and power over the city. In the story of Tar Beach, Cassie Lightfoot and her brother lounge on the rooftop of their apartment building in the summer, just as many New Yorkers trying to escape the heat before air conditioning. There, she spins a tale in which she can claim ownership over various city bridges and skyscrapers by flying over them. Via the act of imagined flight, Cassie escapes the distressing daily realities that a young black girl in 1939 Harlem would inevitably have had to face. Cassie’s dreamy domination of New York City is set only 76 years after the Emancipation Proclamation and 15 years before Brown vs Board of Education.

In a 1994 interview, Ringgold speaks of her own father and mother who “started out together, you know on the rooftop, in the twenties, playing their violins, going to church and with their dreams. And then they got married, they had three kids and my father got stuck in a dead-end job. […] He didn’t have any choices and that’s what [Tar Beach] was about—it’s about not having choices.”

In this woodcut, the viewer is afforded a glimpse Cassie and her brother flying over the city—the George Washington Bridge, dazzling and bright, theirs for the taking. Ringgold’s signature line “Anyone can fly” is perfectly captured by this image.

Publisher: Mulberry Press

Collections: MoMA, Cornell Museum at Rollins College

This is a rare print created as part of the Public Works of Art project (PWAP). The PWAP was a program created under President Franklin Roosevelt to employ artists, as part of the New Deal, during the Great Depression. As part of the New Deal and the WPA (Works progress administration), the PWAP put over 3,700 artists to work, creating paintings, prints, sculptures, drawings, photographs and murals. Louis Lozowick was one of the artists on the PWAP where he also was employed to supervise other artists.

Collection: Smithsonian

Inspired by the Beatles landing at JFK Airport for their first US tour in 1964, Mondrian Meets the Beatles incorporates an iconic image from American Pop culture with the recognizable hues of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian. Ezawa explained his reasoning behind the intersection of the band and the artist: “The Beatles and Mondrian are both pioneers in their respective fields. Mondrian’s work radically impacted the trajectory of painting in the 20th century. The Beatles revolutionized rock and pop. Both of them also have a very classic style that I appreciate.”