The Art of Skyscrapers

As buildings got taller they captured the interest of many different artists in the 20th century sparking dreams of the future. Paired with the recent advent of film photography in the late 19th century it enabled cameras to be sold for a lower price and become a widespread medium. In hand, film additionally made viable the creation of cinematography though large amounts of inexpensive paper film. Additionally, early in the 20th-century skyscrapers were viewed a symbol for the future and progress that inspired many other artists and was the subject of early modern art, specifically those involved in the precisionism movement which embraced the new American landscape.

 

Personally, I think this idea of the new American landscape is best displayed by an exchange between photographer Alfred Stieglitz and his father, who asked why he photographed the hideous Flatiron building to which Stieglitz replied, “Why Pa, it is not hideous, but the new America. The Flat Iron is to the United States what the Parthenon was to Greece."

 

Lastly, during this same period, there was

developing ideas of what was to be considered

"Art", prime candidates for this discussion were

the subject of photography and skyscrapers

themselves.

 

For more on the advancement of

Skyscrapers as an art form Louis

Sullivan created an excellent article

that was published in Lippincott's Magazine

a PDF form is located to the right.