[High-Contrast Graphic Design Incorporating Repeated Image of Daily News Building]
Thurman Rotan American
Not on view
Engineering developments in the 1880s enabled the construction of large, multistory buildings using steel frames to support non-load-bearing walls, which soon dominated urban skylines. One such edifice, the Daily News Building in Manhattan, provides the central motif for Rotan’s photocollage. Completed two years previously, the Art Deco building was already a well-known symbol of modernity, and Rotan uses its striped facade to set up a pattern of repeating black and white geometric forms. Rather than depicting the skyline from afar, Rotan’s photocollage plunges the viewer into the immersive architectural rhythm of the modern city.