Onlinelabels Doc-Pc Com 1 4 16

Following is a list of the prints shown in the exhibition at the Baird Community Center.
The captions for the

prints were written by students in Dr. Martha Eastons Writing for Museums class, taught in the
Graduate Program in Museum Professions at Seton Hall University. The catalogue numbers correspond
with the numbers of the prints reproduced in the slideshow above.
1. Backyards of Broadway, 1926
Coll. Warren and Andrea Grover
This print is an evocation, rather than an exact representation, of downtown Manhattan with its tall
skyscrapers along lower Broadway and the Hudson River piers behind them. Seen as if from above, we
look down upon the high rise buildings, which, in turn, tower over the street, where diminutive figures and
cars seem to hurry towards their destination.
(Marisol Padilla)
2. Checkerboard, 1927-28
Coll. Stephen and Laurence Steglitz
As a young artist in early twentieth-century America, Lozowick found the same creative inspiration in steel
that artists had historically found in nature. Turning shafts of light into a geometric pattern as they filter
through an elevated train track, he conveys moments of subtle beauty in this new urban landscape.
(Taryn Nie)
3. Whitehall Building, 1927-28
Special Collections Division, Newark Public Library, Newark, NJ
This print shows the Whitehall Building, a 20-story office building constructed between 1902 and 1904,
and its much larger annex, built between 1908 and 1910. The building was named after Peter
Stuyvesants 17th-century home White Hall, which was once located nearby, in the Southern tip of
Manhattan.
(Marisol Padilla)
4. Hoboken, 1927-1929
Though seen from Hoboken, this lithograph depicts the Weehawken railroad yard on the Hudson River,
with its docks jutting out into the water to receive cargo from the ships silhouetted in the misty
background. The clean geometric shapes and focus on machinery, rather than people, exemplify
Lozowicks artistic preferences in the 1920s. While the scene lacks human figures, the numerous train
cars and ships impart a sense of activity and life.
(Brianna LoSardo)
5. Hell Gate Bridge, 1928

Hell Gate Bridge was completed in 1916 and was the largest steel bridge in the world until 1931, when it
was surpassed by the Bayonne Bridge, three years after the completion of this print. Lozowicks
composition invites the viewer to experience the bridge as if standing in Astoria Park in Queens, looking
up at the massive structure.
(Meghan Maloney)
6. In the Park - No Job, 1929
The Montclair Art Museum, Gift of Lee Lozowick
This print shows a series of vignettes centered on the image of a homeless man sleeping on a park
bench, a scene that illustrates the effects of the Great Depression. Other vignettes include two trees, one
black and the other white, a tree branch, a view of a street, and, in the foreground, a squirrel. The print
also features, left of the squirrel, a trapezoid shape that looks like a value exercise.
(Marisol Padilla)
7. Sweet Peas, 1929
This flower still life is a radical departure from Lozowicks architectural scenes of the 1920s with their
straight lines and geometric shapes. The sweet peas, placed in a coffeepot set inside a crystal bowl,
make for a jumble of curved lines and irregular shapes, the more bewildering as the still life is placed
against a black background producing complex effects of light and shade.
(Karin Beraitis)
8. Newark Harbor, 1929
Viewed from across the Passaic River, this view of Newark reflects Lozowicks fascination with
industrialization. During the 1920s, economic prosperity combined with advances in building techniques
created a national obsession for building ever taller structures. Here the newly built New Jersey Bell
building towers over the harbor and contrasts with the blurred outline of the steeple of Trinity and St.
Pauls Cathedral at the right edge of the scene, a sign of a bygone age.
(Brianna LoSardo)
9. Third Avenue, 1929
Towering skyscrapers loom over the Third Avenue El train tracks as it winds its way through Manhattan.
Living on St. Marks Place, Lozowick would often have taken this train, which ran from South Ferry to the
Bronx. Devoid of people, the print focuses on the contrast between the rectilinear geometry of the
buildings and the curvature of the tracks. Its dramatic chiaroscuro causes the buildings to stand out as
white ghosts against the darkened sky.
(Derek Butler)
10. Hanover Square, 1929
Dramatically framed by the steel beams of the Third Avenue El, this print offers a view of Hanover Square,
in downtown Manhattan. The print typifies modern New York during the Roaring Twenties, complete with
skyscrapers, rapid transit trains, cars, and trucks.
(Derek Butler)
11. Hudson Bridge, 1929
The 1920s saw a significant increase in the mass production of cars necessitating the construction of new
roads, highways, and bridges. Among the major construction projects of the period was the Hudson River
Bridge, later renamed the George Washington Bridge, which connects New Jersey with Manhattan. This
scene shows only the two steel towers of the suspensions bridge, which would not be completed until
1936.
(Meghan Maloney)
12. Noon, 1930
Noon, showing a farmhouse shaded by a tree may have been made during the summer of 1930, when
Lozowick was a fellow at the Yaddo Art Colony at Saratoga Springs. Different from his usual subjects of
skyscrapers and industrial scenes, this print nonetheless shows his pervasive interest in geometric
shapes and dramatic chiaroscuro contrasts.
(Karen Beraitis)
13. Steam Shovel, 1930
While during the early 1920s, Lozowick focused on skyscrapers and bridges, by the late 1920s and early
1930s, he became interested in the machines and the men that built them. This print depicts a steam
shovel, one of the crucial machines that helped construct the rapidly growing highway system in America.
(Derek Butler)
14. The Queensboro Bridge, 1930

Unlike many of the bridges providing access to Manhattan, the Queensboro Bridge is not a suspension
but a cantilever bridge - a construction made possible by the presence of Roosevelt Island, a small strip
of land in the East River which is visible under the bridges arch. Completed in 1909, the bridge, then
called Blackwells Bridge after the earlier name of Roosevelt Island, was an engineering marvel that cost
fifty lives and 18 million dollars to build.
(Meghan Maloney)
15. Birth of a Skyscraper, 1930
This famous print combines a series of vignettes representing scenes of modern constructiona worker
operating a pneumatic drill (foreground, right); two men by a loading platform (left); a crane; a pile of twoby-fours; and, in the background, buildings rising with small figures of laborers workers alone or in
groups. A white plume of smoke, in the center, divides the print vertically in half. While the image
celebrates, even heroicizes the worker, it also stresses his anonymity and his position as a small cog in
an enormous building machine.
(Brianna LoSardo)
16. Brooklyn Bridge, ca. 1930
The oldest suspension bridge in New York, the Brooklyn Bridge had been in use for fifty years by the time
this print was completed.
(Meghan Maloney)
17. Devils Bridge,Tajikistan, 1931
In 1931, Lozowick, together with a group of other American artists, writers, and musicians, was invited to
travel to the Soviet Union. During his six-month stay, he visited the remote republic of Taijikistan, which at
the time was only accessible by horse. In his article Hazardous Sport in Taijikistan, (Travel 1922), he
describes his adventures crossing steep mountain passes and traversing deep gorges on crumbling
devils bridges. This print, with its dark sky, cragged rocks, and swirling water, evokes the dangers of his
travels.
(Meghan Maloney)
18. Pneumatic Drill, 1934
The distinctive sound of jackhammers reverberated in cities across America during the Great Depression.
Under the Works Progress Administration, the government hired millions of unemployed men to carry out
construction projects. Lozowick often portrayed urban workers, and these three men subject to jarring
vibrations and jagged concrete reflect the countrys struggle for stability as they strive to maintain a
living and rebuild the foundations of a nation.
(Taryn Nie)
19. Strike Scene, 1934

During the Depression labor unions grew and black workers unionized in large numbers for the first time.
Union strikes often led to violence, which Lozowick captures in this image of a black protester fending off
a white police officers baton while clutching a picket sign. A fallen striker also grasps the sign with two
fingers raised, perhaps in a show of solidarity.
(Brianna LoSardo)
20. First Avenue Market, 1934
Lozowick captures an ordinary day in this image of merchants and customers at a market on First Avenue
during the 1930s. The vendor at the bottom left is in a relaxed pose with his hands in his pockets, leaning
against his table of gourds. Another vendor has his arms outstretched, vying for the attention of
customers.
(Marisol Padilla)
21. Nude, 1934
Susan Teller Gallery, New York, NY
This print of a supine female nude, seen in drastic foreshortening, was printed in a very small edition of
only five prints. The motif of a female nude reading a book returns, with some variations, in Artist on
Vacation of 1939, also in this exhibition (25). Though nudes are relatively rare in Lozowicks work, he
had had a thorough training in figure drawing and painting, at the Kiev Academy as well the National
Academy of Design in New York, where he received a silver medal in the Antique Figure Class in 1908.
22. Abandoned Quarry (Rockport Quarries), 1936
Coll. Robert and Deborah Adler
Before concrete became a major building material in the 1920s, granite was widely used for the
construction of large-scale buildings. Much of it was quarried on Cape May in Massachusetts, and the
village of Rockport could boast some of the largest quarries. By the 1930s, however, many of the
Rockport quarries were abandoned. Filled with water, they became popular swimming holes for locals as
well as tourists. In his print, Lozowick emphasizes the rock faces and the deep pools through his use of
light and shade.
(Karen Beraitis)
23. Lynching (Lynch Law), 1936
Lozowick was profoundly affected by incidents of racial and social injustice taking place in both the United
States and Europe. In a letter to art historian Francis V. OConnor, he wrote that he couldnt remember the
exact inspiration for this scene, but he does mention a flooding incident in Alabama in which whites were
saved and blacks were callously left to drown as a possible stimulus. He also told OConnor that the
print was a self-portrait.
(Chelsea Levine)
24. Thanksgiving Dinner, 1938 but printed in 1972
In stark contrast with traditional views of Thanksgiving as a day of plenty, Lozowicks version depicts a
soup kitchen in the Bowery, in which four men are served a meager dinner of hot soup and bread.
(Chelsea Levine)
25. Artist on Vacation, 1939
Here Lozowick shows us a moment of leisure in the famous artist colony of Mohegan Island, Maine. The
two nude figures, most likely Lozowick and his wife Adele, laze among the sharp cliff overlooking the
ocean. Lozowick watches as the woman, her legs spread carelessly, reads a book.
(Kristin Lapos)
26. Derricks and Men, 1939
In the late 1920s and 30s, Lozowick provided artwork and wrote for New Masses (1926-48), a left wing
publication closely associated with the Communist party, USA. This caused him to refocus his art from the
products of engineering and industry to the producers. Here, a spotlight illuminates three workers as they
ride on a section of steel girder for a new building or bridge.
(Chelsea Levine)
27. Spring on 5th Avenue, 1940
The growing gap between social classes in the years before World War II concerned Lozowick as he
advocated for class equality. Here, a poor man sells flowers to a wealthy couple on the street, distracting
them from window shopping for the latest fashions on New Yorks Fifth Avenue.
(Derek Butler)
28. Nuns on Wall Street, 1941
Special Collections Division, the Newark Public Library, Newark, NJ
Two nuns walk alongside large, straight-walled skyscrapers towards Trinity Church. It was once the tallest
building in New York City, but it is now dwarfed by new construction. Like the church, the nuns seem out
of place alongside the skyscrapers and businessman on Wall Street and remind us of the past in a
modern city.
(Brianna LoSardo)
29. Georgia Landscape, 1943
Inspired by a trip to Georgia in the early 1940s, this print, also called Georgia Moss, combines several
visual memories, including a prison chain gang and workers in a cotton field. The scene is set in a dense
jungle-like landscape with tall trees heavily hung with Spanish moss.
(Marisol Padilla)
30. Low Horizon, 1947
The meticulously drawn tree trunks jut out at abrupt angles while factories, bridges, and skyscrapers are
reduced to mere outlines on the horizon. With the addition of the human figure, towering over the city yet
dwarfed by nature, Lozowick seems to remind us that even while people are molding steel into
engineering marvels, some aspects of nature will always remain untamable.
(Taryn Nie)
31. Along the Tracks, 1955
This print shows a row of hollyhocks set against a weathered backdrop articulated by telegraph wires and
insulators. It seems that this is one of several prints in his oeuvre that evoke rather than represent. The
artist appears to have been interested in the contrast between nature and industry, between irregularity
and geometry, and between light and dark.
(Karen Beraitis)
32. Mayaland Yucatan, 1958

This print depicts the ruins of an ancient Mayan city in the Yucatan Peninsula, where Lozowick traveled in
1956. A carved human face, adorned with a royal headdress, patiently guards the citys crumbling temple
through the centuries. The dark areas to the left of the carved face represent the thick jungle canopy that
hides the ruins.
(Kristin Lapos)
33. Thalias Playground, 1960
A large weed dominates this ancient Greek amphitheater in Epidaurus, where Lozowick traveled on one
of his many world tours. Smaller weeds sit atop the crumbling stone seats as if they are spectators,
silently watching the shadows slide across the curved bowl. Thalia, the muse of comedy and pastoral
poetry, must chuckle and rejoice in this monument to natures triumph over civilization.
(Kristin Lapos)
34. Buddha, 1963
Based on an experience during one of his numerous post-war travels, this print depicts the famous Great
Buddha at the Ktoku Temple in Kamakura, Japan. To emphasize the scale of the 43.8 foot tall bronze
sculpture, Lozowick has placed a woman dressed in a traditional kimono at its base.
Label written by Chelsea Levine
35. Athens, 1967
Susan Teller Gallery, New York, NY
This is one in a series of three tiny prints, produced in 1967. Entitled Athens, it represents two classical
column fragments and, in the background, the figure of an old white-bearded man with a long black habit
and a top hatperhaps a Greek orthodox cleric or a rabbi. Harkening back to the past and emphasizing
old age, the print stands in stark contrast to Monument to Cosmonaut, another one in the series,
which is a futuristic image of a sleek, streamlined monument set against a dark sky with a full moon.
36. Gate of Knesseth, 1971
Lozowick traveled to Israel several times between 1954 and 1968. He created a number of lithographs
depicting scenes in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel. This print shows the original entrance gates to the
Israeli Parliament, known in Hebrew as the Knesseth. The gates were designed by the artist David
Palombo and have since been replaced by newer, more secure gates.
(Chelsea Levine)
37. Colosseum, 1972
Coll. Tracy R. Cate

In his later prints, Lozowick moved away from his earlier themes of modern engineering marvels and
industrial workers to focus on scenes from his travels. Based on a trip to Italy, this print depicts the
Roman Colosseum. The weathered and crumbling arches of the ancient building form a stark contrast
with the geometric forms and smooth surfaces seen in his earlier works.
(Karen Beraitis)
38. Red Teapot (Teapot for One), 1973
After moving to South Orange in 1945, Lozowick gradually began to focus on subjects other than urban
scenes and industry. In this print, he refreshes the traditional still life by applying the hard edges and
strong contrasts found in his city scenes to simple household objects.
(Taryn Nie)
39. Castle of Montezuma, 1973
From the collection of The Montclair Art Museum, Gift of Lee Lozowick
After Lozowick moved to South Orange from New York, he became interested in landscapes and ruins.
This print depicts a stone dwelling near Flagstaff, Arizona, carved directly into a cliff by ancestral
Puebloan peoples. Rock ledges dwarf the boxy dwelling, which sits off-center. It blends into the cliffs,
challenging the boundary between nature and architecture.
(Kristin Lapos)
40. Unfinished Synagogue, 1973

In 1954, Lozowick traveled to Beersheba, Israel where he likely saw this synagogue under construction.
At the time of his visit, Beersheba had just been conquered by Israel (during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War)
and a process of rapid urbanization had begun. In 1973, when Lozowick made this print, tension between
Arabs and Israelis was building again.
(Kristin Lapos)

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Following is a list of the prints shown in the exhibition at the Baird Community Center.

The captions for the

5. Hell Gate Bridge, 1928

14. The Queensboro Bridge, 1930

19. Strike Scene, 1934

Special Collections Division, Newark Public Library, Newark, NJ

Coll. Tracy R. Cate

40. Unfinished Synagogue, 1973

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