The Metropolitan Museum of Art

James Nares: Street
(00:02:17) 18219 views

Skyscraper

Date:: ca. 1927
Medium:: Maple, Bakelite
Dimensions:: H. 79 7/8, W. 34 3/8, D. 18 7/8 in. (202.9 x 87.3 x 47.9 cm)
Classification:: Woodwork
Credit Line:: Purchase, Theodore R. Gamble Jr. Gift, in honor of his mother, Mrs. Theodore Robert Gamble, 1982
Accession Number:: 1982.30ab

This artwork is not on display

Description

During the 1920s and 1930s the skyscraper became a potent and uniquely American symbol of modernity: the ultimate attribute of success was a penthouse apartment in Manhattan. The jagged outline of the New York skyline was recognizable worldwide. It suggested strength, daring, faith in the future, and rejection of the constraints of the past. Artists and designers of the period, searching for a new vocabulary with which to express the excitement and optimism
of the age, seized upon the image of the skyscraper and utilized it not only in paintings and sculpture but also in everything from furniture to fabrics.
Exhibition History

Newport Beach, California: Orange County Museum of Art, May 25 - August 19, 2001. Flint, Michigan: Flint Institute of Arts, September 14 - December 16, 2001. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, January 11 - April 7, 2002. Charlotte, North Carolina: Mint Museum of Craft & Design, May 3 - July 28, 2002. Tulsa, Oklahoma: The Philbrook Museum of Art, Inc August 23 - November 17, 2002. ¦American Modern¦.
See also
Who
Paul T. Frankl (3)
What
Wood (7,651)

Furniture (5,725)

Woodwork (2,582)

Plastic (2,277)

Case furniture (874)

Maple (503)

Bookcases (33)

Bakelite (TM) (21)
Where
North and Central America (81,404)

United States (78,109)
When
A.D. 1900-present (77,516)
In the Museum
Modern and Contemporary Art (12,747)
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
The United States and Canada, 1900 A.D.–present