Bridge

1936

painting | oil on canvas

On view in the museum, second floor

The theme of the industrial and technological power of the United States, embodied in the engineering masterwork of the Brooklyn Bridge, was one that Stella explored repeatedly.

The overall composition of Bridge calls to mind an altarpiece. Massive cables arc upward, and we glimpse indistinct city skyscrapers through the archways. Framing the bottom of the painting (like a predella, the base of an altar) are black, gray, electric-blue, and luminous yellow circles representing subways — the veins and arteries that connect the inhabitants of New York's vast landscape.

Stella became associated with the Italian futurists, who celebrated modern technology and the power of speed and energy, during a three-year span in Europe. It had a profound effect upon his painting. When he returned to the United States in 1912 he began to paint large canvases of the New York cityscape infused with light, color, and motion. Over the remainder of his artistic career Stella oscillated among several different working methods, but he is remembered primarily for his futurist works such as Bridge.

50 1/8 in. x 30 1/8 in. (127.32 cm x 76.52 cm)

Acquired 1943

Collection SFMOMA

The United States General Services Administration, formerly Federal Works Agency, Works Projects Administration, allocated to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

3760.43

Keywords

arches, cables, lines, circles, bridges, cities, sweeping

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