The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Columbus Circle

Columbus Circle

1936
(American, 1898–1991)
America, 20th century
gelatin silver print
Image: 24.6 x 19.6 cm (9 11/16 x 7 11/16 in.); Paper: 25.3 x 20.3 cm (9 15/16 x 8 in.); Matted: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.)
Sundry Purchase Fund 1980.33
© Berenice Abbott/Getty Images
Location: not on view

Description

A native of Springfield, Ohio, Abbott studied art and photography in Paris. Arriving in New York in 1929, she was shocked by the past decade’s vertical building boom, and dedicated herself to documenting the city’s new structures and fast-disappearing historic ones. She made this image from the ninth floor of the General Motors building in New York while working for the Federal Art Project, a governmental agency that employed artists during the Depression. The statue of Columbus, at center, is dwarfed by two advertising signs: one for Schenley rye whiskey and a landmark 80-x-50-foot display for Coca-Cola that required 3,000 incandescent bulbs.
  • Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1980." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 6 (1981): 163-219. p. 213. no. 80 25159730
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Reproduced: P. 72
  • From Riches to Rags: American Photography in the Depression. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 13-December 31, 2017).
    Main Gallery Rotation (Gallery 229): April 14, 2014 - November 7, 2014.
    Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 24-September 16, 2007); Frick Art and Historical Center, Pittsburgh, PA (October 3, 2009-January 3, 2010).
    Urban Vicissitudes. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 2-September 29, 1985).
    Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981).
  • {{cite web|title=Columbus Circle|url=false|author=Berenice Abbott|year=1936|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1980.33