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Sunlight shining through a grid of steel girders supporting a bridge

A complex grid of criss crossing steel support girders fills the view, as seen from below, and at a sharp angle. A massive beam rises from lower center diagonally up toward the upper left corner, parallel to another beyond it that we glimpse in the lower left corner. Intersecting these, three beams run lengthwise radiating from the lower left across the view toward upper left. These in turn are criss crossed by beams like train tracks, through which bright sun shines, casting striped shadows across the structure. Intermittent diagonal struts further add to the complex rhythm of lines.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
P1996.10
People
Ralston Crawford, American (St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada 1906 - 1978 Houston, Texas)
Title
Third Avenue El
Classification
Photographs
Work Type
photograph
Date
1949
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States, New York, New York City
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/283193

Physical Descriptions

Technique
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 7.8 x 11.5 cm (3 1/16 x 4 1/2 in.)
sheet: 9 x 12.4 cm (3 9/16 x 4 7/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: verso, t.r., graphite: P08928BC
  • stamp: verso, l.r., black ink: 288

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Laurence Miller Gallery, New York, New York, from the estate of Ralston Crawford, to the Harvard University Art Museums, 1996.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Richard Norton Memorial Fund, Kenyon C. Bolton III Fund, and Kate, Maurice R. and Melvin R. Seiden Purchase Fund for Photographs
Copyright
© Ralston Crawford Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Accession Year
1996
Object Number
P1996.10
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • , checklist
  • James Cuno, ed., A Decade of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions by the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, Mass., Spring 2000), p. 79, ill.

Exhibition History

  • A Decade of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions of Photographs, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/29/2000 - 07/23/2000
  • 32Q: 1110 Mid-Century Abstraction II (Post-Painterly Abstraction), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 04/06/2016 - 10/13/2016

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu