2024-01-29 10:11:10
Not many New Yorkers today have memories of the city’s elevated trains, which shook tenement windows and roared above the streetscape from the 1860s to the 1950s—when the final line, the Third Avenue El, was dismantled.
Let Bernard Gussow, a Russia-born artist who studied, taught, painted, and created lithographs in New York City in the first half of the 20th century, give you a glimpse of New Yorkers walking under the Ninth Avenue El. This line was the first to open in 1868, and most of the tracks met their demise in 1940.
“Late Afternoon, Columbus Avenue, New York,” was completed in the 1920s or 1930s; the date is unclear. In this view, an unnamed Upper West Side side street, with charming brownstone steps and little traffic, is framed by rusted steel tracks and support beams. Faceless men and women go regarding their day.
Gussow certainly isn’t the first artist to paint New York’s networks of elevated tracks. But he seemed to have an interest in depicting humanity amid the machinery of urban transit. These midcentury paintings capture the anonymity and intimacy of riding the New York City subway.
[Image: 1stdibs.com]
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#Paintings #York #City #Elevated #Trains
