93 Items in this Learning Collection
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Copyright
All Rights Reserved ()

Sur le Flat-Iron

Accession Number
2000/2.172

Title
Sur le Flat-Iron

Artist(s)
Albert Gleizes

Artist Nationality
French (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
1916

Medium & Support
graphite, ink, gouache, and white heightening on tannish-gray wove paper

Dimensions
10 3/4 x 8 5/16 in. (27.2 x 21.1 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Herbert Barrows

Label copy
March 28, 2009
Gleizes was a leading artist and theorist of Cubism. Here he depicts the historic Flatiron Building in Manhattan as a dynamic arrangement of interlocking triangular and rhomboid forms around a narrow strip of white that represents the “point” of the triangular building. The upward thrust of the elongated shapes from a wider base both conveys a sense of the building’s imposing height—it was arguably the tallest building in New York when completed in 1902—and echoes the shape for which the Flatiron Building is famous.

Subject matter
Drawing depicting the landmark Flatiron Building at Broadway, Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street in New York City. Designed by Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham and built in 1902, the triangular building was the first structure in New York with a steel frame and is one of New York’s oldest surviving skyscrapers. Gleizes takes a Cubist and Futurist approach in his representation of the building, revealing multiple perspectives of the edifice simultaneously on a single picture plane, while systematically dismantling and rhythmically reorganizing its structure.

Physical Description
Ink and gouache drawing in black, gray and white on tan paper with tall vertical structure at center of composition rendered in a series of quick vertical and diagonal lines.

Primary Object Classification
Drawing

Primary Object Type
cityscape

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Cubist
Non-Representational Art
abstraction
gouaches (paintings)
shipbuilding

& Author Notes

All Rights Reserved