Howard Norton Cook
Chrysler Building (Chrysler Building in Construction)
1931

Name: Chrysler Building (Chrysler Building in Construction)
Brand: Howard Norton Cook
Price: 18000 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Howard Cook (1901-1980), Chrysler Building (Chrysler Building in Construction) – –1930, Wood Engraving. Duffy 122. Edition 75, only 50 printed. 1931, signed in pencil, annotated “imp” and dated; printed by the artist Image size 10 1/16 x 6 11/16 inches (256 x 170 mm); sheet size 11 7/8 x 9 inches (302 x 229 mm). A superb, black impression, on thin cream wove Japan paper, in excellent condition. By the early 1930s, Cook’s prints of New York, especially its skyscrapers and bridges, were widely known and often reproduced in such magazines as Harpers and The Atlantic Monthly. The first solo exhibition of his prints was held in 1929 at the Weyhe Gallery in New York. While Cook’s lithographs of New York were made in collaboration with the printer George Miller, he insisted on printing his woodcuts and etchings himself. Cook lived in New Mexico for much of his life, and only took up residence in New York for varying periods between 1930 and 1938; nonetheless, he remains most renowned for the prints he produced of what he described as “the endearing serrated skyline of the most exciting modern city in the world”. Here Cook shows the Chrysler Building before the addition of its famous art deco “crown.” For a brief period after it was finished and before the completion of the Empire State Building in 1931, it was the tallest building in the world. Cook’s perspective of the illuminated building, seen from below, enhances a sense of its looming monumentality; this is further reinforced by the dark geometric forms of the smaller surrounding buildings.

Creator:

Howard Norton Cook (1901-1980, American)

Creation Year:

1931

Medium:

Woodcut

Movement & Style:

American Modern

Period:

1930-1939

Condition:

Gallery Location:

New York, NY

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU51531509003

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Howard Norton Cook

Howard Norton Cook left his childhood home in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1919 to receive formal training in New York at the Art Students League. While in New York, Cook studied under George Bridgman and attended an experimental class with Max Weber and Andrew Dasburg. He spent his time between sessions painting outdoor billboards and working in lithography and photo-engraving shops. In 1922, Cook began work as an illustrator, contributing woodcuts and drawings to Harper's, Scribner's, Survey, Atlantic Monthly, and Forum. Various assignments allowed him to travel all over the world. Cook was on assignment for Forum to illustrate the serialization of Willa Cather's Death Comes to the Archbishop when he first visited New Mexico in 1926. Cook remained in New Mexico for a year and a half, during which time he met and married artist Barbara Latham. During the next few years, the couple traveled to Paris where Cook studied in a prominent lithographic workshop; to Taxco, Mexico, where he studied fresco painting on a Guggenheim fellowship; and to the Deep South of the United States on a second Guggenheim fellowship. In 1935, Cook and Latham settled in Taos, New Mexico. By that time, Cook had been represented in 50 Prints of the Year several times, yet his focus turned to fresco painting. He traveled across throughout the United States on mural commissions and, in 1937, the Architectural League of New York awarded Cook the Gold Medal for mural painting. Cook later served in the Navy as an artist-war correspondent in the South Pacific. His paintings from that period were exhibited in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and later displayed across the U.S. in a traveling exhibition funded by the War Department. After returning from the war, Cook produced several powerful lithographs depicting his experiences in the South Pacific. In 1949, he was elected to membership in the National Academy as a graphic artist. During the 1940's, Cook was known for his watercolors set in New Mexico. Later paintings in oil became increasingly abstract. Some of the artist's favorite subjects included Southwestern landscapes and Indian dances that focused on conveying a strong sense of movement. Throughout his career, Cook was a guest professor at many art schools and universities. In 1967, he became the first artist in residence at the Roswell Museum, Roswell, NM. Howard Cook remained in New Mexico until his death in 1980. ©David Cook Galleries, LLC