Straphangers

Sybil Andrews Canadian, born England

Not on view

Andrews, like many Grosvenor School artists, set works in the Underground. She used some of the same colors as Cyril Power and depicted similar scenes of commuters and architectural details, but her works are more cheerful and express less ambivalence about the Underground and modernity broadly considered. Her compositions are minimal and sleek as she eliminated extraneous details that would detract from the pulsating rhythm of movement in the machine age. Her figures are also more anonymous, represented without facial features or, as in the case of Rush Hour, from the knee down. In Straphangers, a work an anonymous critic described as capturing "the very soul of modern London," sharp curves represent the torsos and arms of passengers packed onto a subway car as they hold straps for stability.

Straphangers, Sybil Andrews (Canadian (born England), Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk 1898–1992 Victoria, British Columbia), Color linocut on Japanese paper

Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.