It is easy
for me to imagine a world without skyscrapers. But in the early
twentieth century these modern monstrosities became monumental
material for paintings. Artists shared the vision of many people of
the time, that man was mastering nature.
Georgia O'Keeffe painted skyscrapers for a while, when she lived in
New York, but abandoned them for the deserts of New Mexico, which
kept her absorbed for the rest of her life. Mountains and waterfalls
remain as subject material, "But when is the last time you've seen a
painting of a skyscraper, or any other modern building, for that
matter?"
Artists treated "the city as a sublime image, inspiring the same
awe that artists found a century previous in the world's great
mountains and waterfalls. Skyscrapers were the ultimate symbols of
the city, and it is natural that these `triumphant business
structures' would also appear in painted images of modern New York."
(132)
Lora S. Carney
131. Lora S. Carney, David Milne, ed. by Ian M. Thom, essay by Lora
S. Carney, (Vancouver, Canada, Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 1991), p.p.
38, 39
132. ibid., p.p. 38, 39 The term 'Skyscraperism' was coined by Frank
Lloyd Wright
