.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Manhattan never lost its fascination for John Marin, and throughout his life he revisited its panoramic sprawl and diverse rhythms. He saw it as "a kind of bustling paradise and as one of the formative influences in his life. First in his watercolors and later in his oils, he observed it from many points of view and created vivid pictorial equivalents for the complex interrelation of its harsh angles, the impact of light on surfaces of glass and stone, the spatial tensions and the myriad contrasts of movement." (C.E. Buckley, John Marin in Retrospect: An Exhibition of his Oils and Watercolors, Washington, D.C., 1962, p. 10) The tempo of the city and its role as a center for Modernist thought were central to Marin's artistic immersion in its atmosphere. As evident in the present work, Buildings, Downtown New York, Marin was a close observer of the shapes, spaces and movement of the modern metropolis.
Marin saw New York as a living entity and sought to convey this in his cityscapes. "Shall we consider the life of a great city as confined simply to the people and animals on its streets and in the buildings? Are the buildings themselves dead? We have been told somewhere that a work of art is a thing alive. You cannot create a work of art unless the things you behold respond to something within you. Therefore if these buildings move me they too must have life. Thus the whole city is alive--and the more they move me the more I feel them to be alive." (C. Gray, ed., John Marin by John Marin, New York, 1970, p. 105)
In Buildings, Downtown New York, the artist paints bold, geometric shapes outlined in black and overlaps them to compress the space. Echoing the larger shapes of the buildings, Marin continues the pattern with small blocks of windows. This repetition of forms within the façades skillfully conveys the noise, density and fast pace of New York City. "I see great forces at work--great movements--the large buildings and the small buildings--the warring of the great and the small--influences of one mass on another greater or smaller mass. Feelings are aroused which give me the desire to express the reaction of these pull forces--those influences which play with one another--great masses pulling smaller masses--each subject in some degree to the other's power. " (John Marin by John Marin, p. 105) With Buildings, Downtown New York, we are witness to Marin's philosophy as the buildings swell, collide, and bend towards each other, interacting as animated masses. Buildings dominate the composition with very little human presence, as these man-made forms interlock into a densely packed mass portraying the dominance of structures in the City. Within these structures, Marin confines a scattering of pedestrians. These shapes are a common theme in Marin's scenes of New York, emphasizing the feeling of isolation and solitude of the urban residents.
Marin's handling of color and brushwork also adeptly emote the energy of New York. In Buildings, Downtown New York he uses short, quick dashes, bringing movement and intensity to the composition. Marin's use of color is as dynamic as his brushwork. He uses bright colors--pink, red, yellow, blue and green--blending and layering the pigments not only to emphasize the stacked and isolated shapes, but to add to the bustle of activity and constant stirring of the city he found so fascinating.
Using one of his compositional trademarks, Marin adds a painted border to Buildings, Downtown New York. The border's encroachment creates the sensation that the work is made up of overlapping snapshots, pasted together in a collage-like manner to create the total picture. A comment from Marin seems particularly apt, where his vision for the work becomes final only after the arrangement of his vignettes: "A picture is complete when it is the completion of your seeing." (John Marin by John Marin, p. 113)
All of the characteristics of Marin's finest paintings of New York reveal themselves in Buildings, Downtown New York, an emblematic summation of Marin's urban sensibilities.
Marin saw New York as a living entity and sought to convey this in his cityscapes. "Shall we consider the life of a great city as confined simply to the people and animals on its streets and in the buildings? Are the buildings themselves dead? We have been told somewhere that a work of art is a thing alive. You cannot create a work of art unless the things you behold respond to something within you. Therefore if these buildings move me they too must have life. Thus the whole city is alive--and the more they move me the more I feel them to be alive." (C. Gray, ed., John Marin by John Marin, New York, 1970, p. 105)
In Buildings, Downtown New York, the artist paints bold, geometric shapes outlined in black and overlaps them to compress the space. Echoing the larger shapes of the buildings, Marin continues the pattern with small blocks of windows. This repetition of forms within the façades skillfully conveys the noise, density and fast pace of New York City. "I see great forces at work--great movements--the large buildings and the small buildings--the warring of the great and the small--influences of one mass on another greater or smaller mass. Feelings are aroused which give me the desire to express the reaction of these pull forces--those influences which play with one another--great masses pulling smaller masses--each subject in some degree to the other's power. " (John Marin by John Marin, p. 105) With Buildings, Downtown New York, we are witness to Marin's philosophy as the buildings swell, collide, and bend towards each other, interacting as animated masses. Buildings dominate the composition with very little human presence, as these man-made forms interlock into a densely packed mass portraying the dominance of structures in the City. Within these structures, Marin confines a scattering of pedestrians. These shapes are a common theme in Marin's scenes of New York, emphasizing the feeling of isolation and solitude of the urban residents.
Marin's handling of color and brushwork also adeptly emote the energy of New York. In Buildings, Downtown New York he uses short, quick dashes, bringing movement and intensity to the composition. Marin's use of color is as dynamic as his brushwork. He uses bright colors--pink, red, yellow, blue and green--blending and layering the pigments not only to emphasize the stacked and isolated shapes, but to add to the bustle of activity and constant stirring of the city he found so fascinating.
Using one of his compositional trademarks, Marin adds a painted border to Buildings, Downtown New York. The border's encroachment creates the sensation that the work is made up of overlapping snapshots, pasted together in a collage-like manner to create the total picture. A comment from Marin seems particularly apt, where his vision for the work becomes final only after the arrangement of his vignettes: "A picture is complete when it is the completion of your seeing." (John Marin by John Marin, p. 113)
All of the characteristics of Marin's finest paintings of New York reveal themselves in Buildings, Downtown New York, an emblematic summation of Marin's urban sensibilities.