AFA 18th Anniversary

18th Anniversary 122 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com In 1912, Manhattan’s City Hall Park was transforming. On one side of the park rose the Woolworth Building, soon to be the world’s tallest building, while on the opposite side work had begun on the Municipal Building. Marin was fascinated by the spectacle of modern construction. He made drawings and watercolors of the two structures under construction and after they were completed. In this sketch of the Municipal Building, cranes and scaffolding are visible atop the new epicenter of city government. The artist must often have been seen standing below the rising towers, in his hands a pencil and a pad of cheap but portable writing paper. The artist said of works like this one, “They—the drawings— were mostly made in a series of wanderings around about my City—New York—with pencil and paper in—sort of—Short hand—writings—as it were—Swiftly put down—obeying impulses of a willful intoxicating mustness—of the nearness— nay—of the being in it—of being a part of it—of that—which to my Eye went on—of the rhythmic movements of people on Street—of buildings a rearing up from sidewalk—of a sort of mad wonder dancing to away up there aloft.” 4 John Marin (1870–1953), Municipal Building, Manhattan, 1912. Graphite on paper, 10 x 8 inches. Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection; Gift of Norma B. Marin (2013.018.268). When Marin returned from Europe to New York in 1909, he was struck by the many transformations rapidly taking place in his beloved home city. Cars and trucks were replacing horses and tall buildings rose in quick succession. The pedestrian walkway on the Brooklyn Bridge, which had opened in 1883, provided the artist with an ideal point of view to depict the new skyscrapers growing up in lower Manhattan. The view in this watercolor looking through the support cables of the bridge centers on the Singer Tower, which was built at 149 Broadway in 1908, when Marin was away in Europe. Its dominant place as the tallest building on the skyline would soon be taken by the Woolworth Building, and later by the Empire State Building. The once iconic Singer Tower, which stood 612 feet tall, was demolished in 1968. 3 John Marin (1870–1953), On the Brooklyn Bridge, 1909–1912. Graphite and watercolor on paper, 10 x 14 inches. Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection; Gift of Norma B. Marin (2013.018.156).