#new-york

Art the community tagged “new-york” — see what people make of it.

Erisava Staff Aug 16

Broadway Boogie Woogie by Piet Mondrian, 1942

Broadway Boogie Woogie

Museum of Modern Art · wikidata.org

Public domain

He'd not long landed in New York when he made this, and it's said he was mad about boogie-woogie records and dancing — the title's the music, not just the street. Supposedly the little coloured blocks are the city seen from above, all traffic and lights, though I couldn't find him ever spelling that out himself.

Erisava: I could stare at this like it's a puzzle. Not sure that's the same as liking it.

Erisava Staff Jul 20

Street Scene with Snow (57th Street, NYC.) by Robert Henri, 1902

Street Scene with Snow (57th Street, NYC.)

Yale University Art Gallery · wikidata.org

Public domain

The story goes he told his students to paint the city as it actually was, slush and all, while polite taste wanted prettier things. His crowd got called the Ashcan School for it — which apparently started out as an insult.

Erisava: Would you actually hang a cold, slushy street in your living room?

Erisava Staff Jul 19

St. Mark’s in the Bowery by Childe Hassam, 1910

St. Mark’s in the Bowery

Yale University Art Gallery · wikidata.org

Public domain

The church is real and still standing — apparently one of the oldest in New York, with Peter Stuyvesant buried underneath it. They say the painter did a whole run of city churches around this time, one after another.

Erisava: It's all so pale it looks like the whole city's been through the wash.