More of my Favorite Stuff

In the show at the Carter, there are a number of great works by John Marin. There is an incredible graphite drawing from 1913-14 (my favorite) and a number of nice, if not typical, watercolors. The one below is a standout, From the Bridge, NYC, 1933. It is one of a few made that depict a similar scene. If you notice, the lower left left shows a horse and cart depicted in a cubo-futurist manner- meaning kind of cubist, but it also shows motion, as if we are seeing multiple views of the horse and cart as it passes us by. This is contrasted with the modern, the skyscrapers. The black lines steaming from the left are not Futurist force-lines, but the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge, which by this time was about 50 years old. Not so modern really, but Marin was responding to the sprouting skyscrapers across New York City between 1913 with the construction of the Woolworth (which he painted-a lot), and into the 30s with the Chrysler and Empire State.




This was also a subject that Marin may have adapted from his friend, Alfred Stieglitz. below is Old and New New York, by the famed photographer.



I think, as I look at this in reproduction, that Marin is showing us in the grean field at right the girder scaffolding of new buildings, and the towers of lower Manhattan from the bridge. What makes the work so exciting is the use of collage. Not pasted discarded papers, but of different drawings on different sheets of watercolor paper, with scenes pieced together.



The white areas around the horse and cart are torn, heavy, watercolor paper. The buildings, girders, and some of the lines of the cables are made by scraping the paper with a sharp blade (shaving through the painted colors to the paper). There seems to be about three different sheets pieced together to make this work.

It is really a complex and interesting watercolor.

Unintentionally, I seem to have some affinity with Marin, who is not always my favorite watercolorist (he did make oils, but they do not hold a candle to his watercolors).

A lot of my field sketches, have a Marin kind of feel, kind of cubistic.

These are two from my trip sketching in Bandelier, New Mexico in August 2009. It is Frijoles Falls and Frijoles Canyon respectively.







Marin painted in New Mexico in 1929 and 1930 only, but made a number of watercolors while out there both summers. He worked mostly in and around Taos.

Here are a couple:Taos Canyon and the sacred Taos Mountain.