From the Bridge Artist: Ralston Crawford (American, born Canada, 1906–1978)

1942

American Paintings and Sculpture

Not on view

From the Bridge hovers at the edge of abstraction. Using flat colors, simplified angular shapes, and crisp outlines, Ralston Crawford depicted the dark girders of a bridge and a bright red factory and smokestack beyond. The artist's goal in painting was to "convey emotional and intellectual reactions to the thing seen" through a process of "selection, elimination, simplification and distortion." This painting is a masterly arrangement of pure geometric shapes as well as an affirmation of America's industrial and engineering power as the country entered World War II.

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

27 7/8 × 39 3/4 in. (70.8 × 101 cm)

Credit Line

Purchased with the Katharine Ordway Fund and the Iola S. Haverstick Fund for American Art

Accession Number

2007.28.1

Geography

Probably made in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Culture

American

Period

20th century

Classification

Paintings

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
The artist; Downtown Gallery, New York; Private collection, ca. 1951; Hirschl & Adler, New York; Beth Urdang Gallery, Boston; Private collection, New York, ca. 1999; Martha Parrish & James Reinish, Inc., New York
Bibliography
  • "Acquisitions 2009," in "State of the Art: Contemporary Sculpture," special issue, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2009), 173, ill
  • Art for Yale: Collecting for a New Century, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2007), 84, 363, pl. 68
  • "Acquisitions, July 1, 2006–June 30, 2007," in "Japanese Art at Yale," special issue, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2007), 192, ill
Object copyright
© Ralston Crawford/VAGA
In Copyright
Additional information

Object/Work type

abstract (general art genre)

Subject

bridges (built works) shapes

Signed

Signed lower right: RALSTON CRAWFORD

Technical metadata and APIs

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