FILTER RESULTS
Whitestone Bridge
1939-194040 1/4 x 32 in. (102.2 x 81.3 cm)
Ralston Crawford
United States (St. Catherines, Ontario, 9/5/1906 - 4/27/1978, New York, NY)
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
Oil on canvas
Credit Line:
Marion Stratton Gould Fund
Accession Number:
1951.2
Location: Currently on view
Collection:
Encyclopedia Britannica Collection
Ralston Crawford’s strong linear style and simplified form and palette in Whitestone Bridge are representative of the modern Precisionist style. Precisionist artists celebrated industrialization and technology with a visual language that evoked the purity and perfection of the machine.
[Gallery label text, 2007]
The Whitestone Bridge, linking The Bronx and Queens, was opened in 1939 just in time for the New York World's Fair. The suspension bridge routed travelers coming to the Fair from Upstate and New England away from the congestion of New York City. At the same time, Crawford was moving away from painting traditional landscapes and searching for a vocabulary that was closer in spirit to the streamlined, industrial aesthetic that he was observing in the world around him. The Whitestone Bridge was an excellent match for his artistic aspirations.
The sleek and futuristic lines of the Whitestone Bridge matched the Trylon and Perisphere logo of the World's Fair, which was intended to signify progress and the World of Tomorrow. By 1944, when this painting was acquired by the Encyclopedia Britannica Collection, the sleek and elegant Whitestone Bridge had become an icon of contemporary design.
The curator traveled to New York City to determine whether the bridge really looks as though it extends back into space with no land visible on the other side. And, in fact, Crawford's thrilling vantage point can be experienced by taking the bus across the bridge - for a brief instant, the first-time crosser experiences the view that Crawford recorded: a slim line of road, held up by wires, sailing across the water with no end in sight.
[Gallery label text, 2006]
[Gallery label text, 2007]
The Whitestone Bridge, linking The Bronx and Queens, was opened in 1939 just in time for the New York World's Fair. The suspension bridge routed travelers coming to the Fair from Upstate and New England away from the congestion of New York City. At the same time, Crawford was moving away from painting traditional landscapes and searching for a vocabulary that was closer in spirit to the streamlined, industrial aesthetic that he was observing in the world around him. The Whitestone Bridge was an excellent match for his artistic aspirations.
The sleek and futuristic lines of the Whitestone Bridge matched the Trylon and Perisphere logo of the World's Fair, which was intended to signify progress and the World of Tomorrow. By 1944, when this painting was acquired by the Encyclopedia Britannica Collection, the sleek and elegant Whitestone Bridge had become an icon of contemporary design.
The curator traveled to New York City to determine whether the bridge really looks as though it extends back into space with no land visible on the other side. And, in fact, Crawford's thrilling vantage point can be experienced by taking the bus across the bridge - for a brief instant, the first-time crosser experiences the view that Crawford recorded: a slim line of road, held up by wires, sailing across the water with no end in sight.
[Gallery label text, 2006]
Marks
Artist's signature, lower right: Ralston/Crawford
Provenance
Purchased by the Encyclopedia Britannica Collection of Contemporary American Painting, Chicago, IL; purchased by Senator William Benton, CT, 1948; purchased by the Gallery in 1951
Related Objects
See a photograph and preparatory drawings by Ralston Crawford for this painting: Study for "Whitestone Bridge", 95.48; Study for "Whitestone Bridge", 95.49; Study for Fortune Magazine, , 95.50; Study for Fortune Magazine, , 95.51; Whitestone Bridge, , 95.52
Keywords
Click a term to view the records with the same keyword
Additional Images
Click an image to view a larger version
Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
- Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting Whitney Museum of American Art 11/27/1940 - 1/8/1941
- 3 Contemporary Americans: Karl Zerbe, Stuart Davis, Ralston Crawford The Arts Club of Chicago 2/1/1945 - 2/28/1945
- Contemporary American Painting Encyclopaedia Britannica 4/12/1945 - 7/30/1950
- New Accessions of American Painting from the Encyclopaedia Britannica Collection 1/19/1951 - 2/28/1951
- Reality and Fantasy, 1900-1954 Walker Art Center 5/23/1954 - 7/2/1954
- Selections from the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery Albany Institute of History & Art 11/15/1964 - 12/20/1964
- Ralston Crawford Retrospective University of Nebraska 2/15/1965 - 3/14/1965
- About New York: Night and Day Gallery of Modern Art 10/19/1965 - 11/14/1965
- 20th Century Vision Memorial Art Gallery 1967-1968
- The Highway Institute of Contemporary Art 1/14/1970 - 7/26/1970
- The Thirties Decade: American Artists and Their European Contemporaries 10/10/1971 - 11/28/1971
- Art in the Embassy United States Department of State 5/1/1973 - 6/1/1977
- Modern Art in Rochester 7/18/1981 - 8/23/1981
- The Long Island Landscape, 1914-1946: The Transitional Years The Parrish Art Museum 6/13/1982 - 8/1/1982
- Images of America: Precisionist Painting and Modern Photography San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 9/9/1982 - 10/9/1983
- Order and Enigma: American Art Between the Two Wars Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute 10/13/1984 - 3/2/1986
- American Realism Between the Wars Nassau County Museum of Art 3/27/1994 - 6/5/1994
- Alfred Hitchcock The Montréal Museum of Fine Arts 11/16/2000 - 9/24/2001
- Industrial Sublime:Modernism and the Transformation of New York's Rivers Hudson River Museum of Westchester 3/20/2014 - 6/22/2014
Bibliography
This object has the following bibliographic references:
- Article Scope: Reproduction only. Susan Dodge Peters, ed. Memorial Art Gallery: An Introduction to the Collection. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery in association with Hudson Hills Press, 1988.
- Article Title: New Accessions of American Paintings. Article Scope: Article. Memorial Art Gallery. Gallery Notes. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 1935-1995. Volume Number: 15, Issue Number: 5. Issue Date: April-May, 1950.
- Democrat and Chronicle. Rochester, NY: Rochester Print Co.
- Article Title: Typical of the Variety in the Britannica Collection Art the Cuts on This Page. Article Scope: Reproduction only. Art Digest. New York, NY: Art Digest, Inc. Volume Number: 19, Issue Number: 13. Issue Date: April 1, 1945. Figure Number: 30
- Article Title: Ralston Crawford. Article Scope: Entry. Grace Pagano and Donald Bear. The Encyclopaedia Britannica Collection of Contemporary American Painting. Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1946. Page Number: 25, Figure Number: 25
- ARTnews. New York, New York: ARTnews Associates
- Docent Newsletter. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery
- The Art Gallery. Ivorytown, CT: Hollycroft Press
- Time Magazine. New York, NY
- Constance Schwartz. American Realism Between the Wars: 1919 to 1941. Roslyn Harbor, NY: Nassau County Museum of Art, 1994.
- Language of Literature. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2001.
- Article Scope: Article and reproduction. Gail Levin. Twentieth-Century American Painting: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. London, England: Sotheby's Publications, 1987.
- Article Scope: Article and reproduction. Art in the Embassy: [a selection of works from the "Art in the embassies" program of the United States Department of State, from the collection of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, New York, and from modern American artists in Ankara]. . Washington, D.C.: United States Dept. of State, ca. 1970s. Issue Date: May 1973 - June 1977.
- Iron Age. Radnor, PA: Chilton Company
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. The Thirties Decade: American Artists and Their European Contemporaries . Omaha, NE: Joslyn Art Museum, 1971.
- Article Scope: Article and reproduction. H. H. Arnason. History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1968.
- Article Scope: Entry. Reality and Fantasy, 1900-1954. Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center, 1954.
- Article Scope: Article and reproduction. Oliver W. Larkin. Art and Life in America. New York, NY: Rinehart & Co., 1949.
- John Gordon. New York, New York: The City as Seen by Masters of Art and Literature. New York, NY: Shorecrest Publishers, Inc., 1965.
- Themes in American Literature. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1971.
- Article Author: McCoubrey, John W.. Article Title: Art and the Road. Article Scope: Article and reproduction. The Highway. Philadelphia, PA: Institute of Contemporary Art, U of Penn, 1970. Page Number: 22, Figure Number: opp. p. 26
- Music Appreciation. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1974.
- William C. Agee. Ralston Crawford. Pasadena, CA: Twelve Trees Press, 1983.
- David A. Laurer. Design Basics. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1985.
- Where Art Thou?. Bridgeport, CT: WJ Fantasy Inc., 1993.
- Article Scope: Entry. Sarah Clark-Langager. Order and Enigma: American Art Between the Two Wars. Utica, NY: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, 1984.
- Article Scope: Entry. Dominique Paini, ed. Hitchcock and Art: Fatal Coincidences. Milan: Mazzotta, 2000.
- Article Scope: Entry. Ronald G. Pisano. The Long Island Landscape, 1914-1946: The Transitional Years. Southampton, NY: Parrish Art Museum, 1982.
- Article Scope: Entry. Karen Tsujimoto. Images of America: Precisionist Painting and Modern Photography. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1982.
- The East Hampton Star. East Hampton, NY
- The Southampton Press. Southampton, NY
- Article Scope: Mention. Elizabeth Brayer. Magnum Opus: The Story of the Memorial Art Gallery, 1913-1988. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 1988.
- Grant Holcomb, III, ed. Voices in the Gallery: Writers on Art. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2001.
- Article Title: Art Ambassadors. Article Scope: Article and reproduction. MAGazine. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery Issue Date: Autumn 2001. Page Number: 10
- Memorial Art Gallery. ARTiculate. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 2000--.
- Article Author: Morris, Errol. Article Title: The Case of the Inappropriate Alarm Clock (Part 5). Article Scope: Article and reproduction. New York Times. New York, NY: New York Times, 1857-. Issue Date: October 22, 2009.
- Article Author: Searl, Marjorie B.. Article Title: Ralston Crawford: Whitestone Bridge. Article Scope: Chapter and reproduction. Marjorie B. Searl, ed. Seeing America: painting and sculpture from the collection of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 2006. Page Number: 240-244
- John Cheever. Verhalen (The Stories). Uitgeverij Atlas
- Poetry through art: by the students of the Young Mothers Program. Fairport, NY: New York State Literacy Center, 1991.
- Article Scope: Reproduction only. Errol Morris. Believing is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography. New York, NY: Penguin Press, 2011.
- Article Author: Jensen, Kirsten M.. Article Title: Painting Manhatta: Modernism, Urban Planning, and New York, 1920-1940. Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Industrial Sublime: Modernism and the Transformation of New York's Rivers, 1900-1940. Yonkers, NY: Hudson River Museum, 2013. Page Number: 70, 87, 113, cat. 20, Figure Number: 20
- Article Author: López, Gabriela. Article Title: Untitled poem. Article Scope: Poetry. Community Voices in the Gallery: a Collection of Writings by Members of our Community Inspired by Works of Art at the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 2009. Page Number: 28
- Article Scope: Reproduction only. Emma Acker. Cult of the Machine: Precisionism and American Art. San Francisco, CA: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2018.
- Article Author: Schuchardt Navratil, Emily. Article Title: From the Air: Ralston Crawford's Aerial Imagery. Article Scope: Mention and reproduction. Ralston Crawford: Air + Space + War. London, England: Merrell, 2021. Page Number: 43, 46
Related Children(s)
Click a record to view
Study for "Whitestone Bridge"
1995.48
Study for "Whitestone Bridge"
1995.49
Study for Fortune Magazine
1995.50
Study for Fortune Magazine
1995.51
Whitestone Bridge
1995.52
Portfolio List
Click a portfolio name to view all the objects in that portfolio
This object is a member of the following portfolios:
Web Links
See links to web pages and lesson plans
Modern Art: Who, What, and Why?
Materials accompanying a teacher inservice presentation at MAG Spring 2008
Seeing America Inservice
Materials from a teacher in-service presentation Spring 2008
Seeing America
Chapter on Ralston Crawford's Whitestone Bridge, written by Marjorie B. Searl.
MAGexplore
MAGexplore provides in-depth information and close looking at over 200 objects in MAG's collection.