This page was created by Elizabeth Horner.
John Marin's Watercolors
In his watercolors, Marin adopts a perspective commonly used in contemporary commercial images: framing the skyscraper with other buildings. There is, however, a difference between the images of the Woolworth before and after completion; the later works demonstrate a move towards abstraction through further destabilization of the building. Marin’s Woolworth Building, No.29 from 1912 and Woolworth Building, No.32 from 1913 are indicative examples. Marin destabilizes the building by bending its tower, yet he never loses its vertical emphasis. The importance of height and its prominence in contemporary skyscraper criticism was perhaps in the back of Marin’s mind when he created the works. In 1896, Louis Sullivan published “The Tall Building Artistically Considered,” in which he advocated for “every inch of [the skyscraper] tall. The…power of altitude,” cementing verticality as one of the skyscrapers most important aspects.[3] This view of prioritizing vertical emphasis and height in skyscraper design persisted into the twentieth century.
The move towards abstraction seen between Woolworth Building, No.29 and Woolworth Building, No.32, can be attributed to Marin’s concern for conveying his emotions through the images that he created. In the Exhibition Guide, Marin states that a photographic representation of urban life and the structures that characterize it would not be an effective way to capture his feelings – “the moving of [him]” – that were evoked by the changed cityscape.[4] It is worth considering, however, that Marin never yielded to total abstraction in his works; there is always a discernable subject. Even though the structure of the Woolworth Building is not accurate in Woolworth Building, No.32, Marin maintains the solidity of the form, so the building is destabilized, but not deconstructed.
Looking at his works, it is clear that Marin was uninterested in representing the perspective one gains from the skyscraper - that is being elevated above the rest of the city. He was primarily attracted to the view that one has of a skyscraper when one is looking at the exterior of the structure and how the tall building affects the surrounding cityscape. Given this, one can assume Marin was wholly unconcerned with what happened inside of skyscrapers (i.e. their economic functions, the people working inside) or who financed their construction, and this is interesting when one considers that the Woolworth Building is the physical manifestation of one man: Frank W. Woolworth. By subverting traditional perspective and destabilizing the building, Marin undercuts the association between the man and the building, thereby shifting the focus of the image to the urban environment.
[1] Martha Tedeschi, “John Marin’s Loaded Brush: Orchestrating the Modern American Watercolor,” in John Marin’s Watercolors: A Medium for Modernism. ed. Martha Tedeschi and Kristi Dahm. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2010), 30.
[2] Marsden Hartley, “As to John Marin, and His Ideas,” in John Marin (New York: Museum of Modern Art by Arno Press, 1936): 16.
[3] Louis Sullivan, “The Tall Building Artistically Considered,” (1896).
[4] John Marin, The Selected Writings of John Marin. ed. Dorothy Newman (New York: Pellegrini & Cudahy, 1949), 4-5.
Liz Horner
Liz Horner
