| From Sea To Shining Sea |
| Written by Mark Rifkin, Contributing Editor | |||
Andreas Feiningerthrough November 13 (Alan Klotz Gallery)through November 7 (Scandinavia House) Alan Klotz Gallery 511 West 25th St 212-741-4764 klotzgallery.com Scandinavia House 58 Park Ave. between 37th and 38th Streets Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 12-6 pm 212-879-9779 scandinaviahouse.org Two Exhibits Highlight Andreas Feininger’s Photos of New York City and Stockholm 42nd Street, NY as Viewed from Weehawken, NJ, 1946  Coney Island, July 4 1949  Kungsgatan, view from Malmskillnadsgatan  The passenger lift Katarinahissen Through November 13, the Alan Klotz Gallery in Chelsea is featuring 18 modern and 2 vintage gelatin silver prints by Feininger, taken primarily in and around New York City between 1940 and 1958. The black-and-white photos are heavily influenced by Feininger’s architectural background, with shots of buildings, bridges, and skylines. Feininger had a fabulous eye for composition, as evidenced by stunning shots of the George Washington Bridge, the crowded beach at Coney Island, and Sands St. stores. One of his most remarkable shots is looking down at a huge mob gathered in Times Square for a Billy Graham rally in 1957, the photograph seeming to breathe all on its own. Feininger was also attracted to travel, favoring shots of cruise ships, loading docks, train stations, and trolleys. The most unusual photograph is of Slinky-like light shooting up from a navy helicopter’s spinning rotors, achieved with a strobe light and carefully managed exposure time. Feininger’s vision of New York is unique and transfixing, filled with shadow and fog, with people rarely in the foreground of the image. After checking out these photos, head over to Scandinavia House (58 Park Ave., scandinaviahouse.org), where Feininger’s impressive photographs of Stockholm are on view through November 7. In 1933, Feininger arrived in Sweden intent on pursuing his career as an architect, but he sort of fell into becoming a photographer. Influenced by the Bauhaus (where his father had taught) and the constructivist work of László Moholy-Nagy, Feininger turned his camera on the architecture of Stockholm, capturing the city streets, docks, buildings, and trolley stations. Drawn to ships and the sea, Feininger took fabulous shots of bridges; in one particular picture, which he called “Vasterbron, the New Time-Saving Connection Between Kungsholm and Sodermalm,” the bridge’s underside can be seen reflected in the icy water, shimmering on the surface. In these pictures taken in the capital of Sweden, Feininger mixes German Expressionism with Russian constructivism, Neue Sachlichkeit, and even a little surrealism. A shot taken from below on a street in Prastgatan is reminiscent of a Miro painting. Darkness crawls up a white apartment complex. The curving line of a bridge in Tranebergsbron pulls the viewer in with its sensuality. And side-by-side shots of people, cars, and trolleys making their way down a street in Kungsgatan are filled with long, eerie, captivating shadows. The exhibit is a wonderful complement to the show at the Alan Klotz Gallery; in fact, you could interchange several of the photos and not recall whether they were taken in New York or Stockholm. The majority of the 50 photos on view come from Feininger’s 1936 book, Stockholm, most of which can also be found in the beautiful catalog for the exhibition, published by the Stockholms Stadsmuseum and available at Scandinavia House. {mos_ri}
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