John Marin's

New York

Brooklyn Bridge, 1910

Brooklyn Bridge, 1912

Though best-known now for marine scenes, John Marin (1870-1953) produced many memorable New York cityscapes, both before and after World War I.  These are all the more interesting given knowledge that he practiced as an architect from 1892 until 1899, when he commenced art studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, which were concluded at the Art Students League in New York.

Eight years later, at the age of 36, he began exhibiting at the annual Salon d'Automne in Paris and met such influential critics, collectors and dealers as the taste-maker and  photographer Alfred Stieglitz, whose 291 Gallery exhibited Marin watercolors in 1909, 1910 (Marin's first one-man show) and for five more years.  After 291 closed in 1917, Steiglitz continued as Marin's agent and arranged many exhibitions including shows at An American Place, the New York gallery Steiglitz managed from 1929 until his death in 1946.  Other notables featured there were Steiglitz's wife, Georgia O'Keeffe, Arthur Dove and Marsden Hartley.

Woolworth Building No. 28 (1912) is among more than  30 paintings Marin made of this structure as construction of its tower - then the world's tallest - neared completion. 

The Brooklyn Bridge was another fresh New York landmark that captured Marin's imagination after his years in Paris (1905-1909) and the Tyrolean Alps (1910). 

While summering on the water in Maine and gaining acclaim for his brilliant seascapes, he continued to depict the city, reveling in its growth and energy. 

Movement #2 Related to Downtown New York (Black Sun) dates from 1926 and Pertaining to Nassau Street, New York dates from 1936.

 

    

Clearly influenced by Cezanne but highly original and marvelously spontaneous, Marin was soon recognized as a major talent and figured in dozens of publications and exhibitions throughout the 1930's, including the first Whitney Museum Biennial in 1933.  In 1942 he was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters and to the American Academy of Arts in the following year.  By the late 1940's, Look Magazine reported that artists and musuem directors viewed Marin as the pre-eminent artist working in the United States and he was crowned one of the two greatest living American painters (along with Jackson Pollock) by the powerful critic Clement Greenberg. In 1950, he (with Pollock and Willem de Kooning) was designated the featured artist representing the USA at the Venice Biennale. 

And yet you've probably very little of him, right?  The popularity of his small format, mostly watercolor works faded fast after his death, when the scene came to be dominated by massive Abstract Expressionist canvasses and the hip coolness of Pop Art.  Personally, I've always found his work extremely exciting and I predict he'll return from neglect to favor before long.

 

 

Text © 2001, 2005 Katherine Anne Harris. All rights reserved.