Philip Pearlstein (1924-2022) View Over Soho, Lower Manhattan, 1977 Aquatint in colors on wove paper Edition 7/41 Signed, editioned and titled in pencil lower left Printed by the Orlando Condeso Workshop, New York. Co-published by the artist and Brooke Alexander, Inc., New York. Sheet: 30in H x 40 1/2 in L Float mounted in a natural wood frame under acrylic: 37 1/2in H x 47 3/8in W x 1 3/4 D
The Eskenazi Museum of Art notes in their cataloging of a print of this view "Although best known for his nudes in studio interiors, Pearlstein began a series of large-scale landscapes in 1974 during a visit to the Canyon de Chelly. While he envisioned this body of work as a meditation on ruins, it included this contemporary view of Manhattan. Pearlstein explained that it was inspired by Joseph Pennell's sepia-colored WWI poster showing an apocalyptic bombing of New York City. To produce his image, Pearlstein taped a grid on the window of his friends' Soho apartment and spent every Sunday for several months painstakingly recording the vista. The scene—which he described as a 'pre-ruin'—is eerily prophetic with the shadowy World Trade Center towers visible in the background."
