Bird's eye view of cityscape at night. In foreground, view from above through girders to street below. In middle ground, partial view of street scene with parked cars and tenement buildings. In distance, view of city buildings along skyline. At upper left corner, jewel-like arrangement of street & automobile lights.

Girders

McPherson, Craig

1986

Artwork Information

  • Title:

    Girders

  • Artist:

    McPherson, Craig

  • Artist Bio:

    American, born 1948

  • Date:

    1986

  • Medium:

    Mezzotint

  • Dimensions:

    23 7/8 x 36 9/16 inches

  • 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

  • Object Number:

    1998.55

  • Display:

    Not Currently on Display

About the Artwork

In 1983 the artist produced the first of his series of large-scale mezzotint cityscape images, Yankee Stadium at Night, a work, which earned the artist extensive critical attention. In this subsequent cityscape view, a rainy nighttime scene titled Girders, McPherson encompassed the landmarks of Hell Gate Bridge, Harlem River, defined by a jewel-like string of lights (left), the Empire State Building seen in the far distance bathed in an eerie gaseous aura (center right), Riverside Church backlit by a soft gray light (right), and the artist’s own immediate neighborhood of Jumal Place seen through the girders (foreground). Typical of his concerns in the cityscape series, McPherson exploited the atmospheric potential of the mezzotint technique to reveal the power of night to transform the sordid, solid geometry of the daytime world into a mutable terrain of secret and powerful emotions.