Chop Shop
McPherson, Craig
1985
Artwork Information
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Title:
Chop Shop
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Artist:
McPherson, Craig
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Artist Bio:
American, born 1948
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Date:
1985
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Medium:
Mezzotint
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Dimensions:
15 1/4 x 25 1/8 inches
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Credit Line:
Wichita Art Museum, Museum purchase, Friends of the Wichita Art Museum, Estate of Mildred H. Wood, Estate of Polly Rombold, and Roy and Joanne McGregor Acquisition Fund
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Object Number:
1998.53
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Display:
Not Currently on Display
About the Artwork
The glamour, the alienation, and the mystery of the modern city at night were principal themes in the imagery of earlier American realists such as John Sloan and Edward Hopper. Using the medium of mezzotint, contemporary artist Craig McPherson has revitalized this classic subject. McPherson embarked upon his now highly acclaimed series of panoramic urban scenes when he moved into his first New York apartment in 1975. According to the artist, the space he rented in a Washington Heights, New York neighborhood was “a true garret . . . on the top floor of an old ice factory.” It was an area noted for its poverty and soaring crime rate. The artist could look out his window at night and watch the operation of a “chop shop,” where stolen cars were stripped, and their parts sold. Yet it was this same view from his high studio window—a sweeping perspective which extended from the Bronx County Courthouse on his left to Riverside Church in Manhattan on his right—which was to inspire McPherson’s paintings and prints from the late 1970s through the present.