John Marin: American Modernist

John Marin - Lower Manhattan from the River, No. 1 - 1921 - Watercolor, charcoal, and graphite on paper - 21 7/8 x 26 1/2 in. (55.6 x 67.3 cm) - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (click photo for larger image)Modernist American painter and printmaker John Marin (1870-1953) is especially known for his expressionistic watercolor seascapes of Maine and his views of Manhattan.

Artists usually employ watercolor to produce only delicate, transparent effects, but Marin’s brilliant command of the medium enabled him to render both the monumental power of New York and the relentless surge of the sea on the Maine coast. His concern with force and motion led him to produce works in which objective reality is hardly recognizable amid the activity of the canvas.

Marin (who briefly studied architecture) painted the watercolor featured here a year after moving to Cliffside, New Jersey. Viewed from across the river, the skyline of Lower Manhattan rises triumphantly. Marin’s penchant for vivid colors and his use of heavy charcoal strokes to accentuate the waves and articulate the gridded high-rises create a composition pulsing with the life of the city. One critic described Marin as an urban visionary. "Other artists have seen the surfaces of New York; but Marin sees New York itself, rearing monstrous pointed heads into a smiling sky . . . the mechanical, swirling, vibrant life of the city."

Marin is often credited with influencing the Abstract Expressionists.

You can read about Marin elsewhere on What About Art?