the Function of Form P aintin g B ri d g es w it h an E n g ineer ’ s E y e B y J oan M arans Dim
A Hot Day Throgs Neck Bridge 40” x 30” Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches rough watercolor paper A little park on the Queens’ side of the Throgs Neck Bridge has a path that goes directly under the ramps that leads to the bridge. I followed that path and when I looked up, I saw this strong X-like composition that was created by two ramps. The blazing sun was in my eyes. To create the correct mood—an effect I wanted to capture—I contrasted warm against cold colors. My work deals with what bridges evoke, rather then what they are.
ntonio Masi, born in 1940, emigrated from Italy to New York City in 1947. Upon his arrival, he was immediately drawn by the city’s possibilities and the beauty of its iconic structures, particularly its bridges. He soon knew that he wanted to be a full-time artist who one day would paint pictures that would celebrate his new home. Antonio graduated from the High School of Industrial Art and received an art scholarship to the School of Visual Art, where he graduated with honors. He began his professional career as a commercial artist. In 1966, Antonio returned to his high school alma mater and served as Art Chairperson. He also enrolled in CUNY and received a BA in the History of Art in 1975. In 1969 he and his brothers founded, Ads ‘n Color, a graphic arts studio. In 2000, he retired from his nine-to-five job and became a full-time artist, focusing mostly on the nine major bridges of New York City—the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg, Queensboro, Robert F. Kennedy ( formerly the Triborough), Throgs Neck, Bronx-Whitestone, George Washington, and Verrazano-Narrows Bridges. These paintings—NYC Bridgescapes—are a part of his American dream, now realized. “Their beauty and strength connect to the narrative of my life and art,” he explains. Hailed as “bold,” “stirring” and “overpowering,” the NYC Bridgescapes’ series has received national acclaim. Arguably no artist has ever produced paintings of New York’s bridges with such skill and artistry.
All images © Antonio Masi 2009
QUESTIONS FOR A R T I ST A N TO N I O M AS I
What do bridges mean to you? Bridges bring us together. Imagine New York City without bridges. Impossible! In fact, if New York City had no bridges, it would simply not be. Instead, it would be clumps of boring, insular and provincial burgs. We don’t think about it much, but our nation owes much to bridge engineers, who often are not nearly as famous as their creations. Consider Othmar H. Ammann! Some know that he designed the George Washington and VerrazanoNarrows Bridges. But few realize he engineered four additional long-span and three short-span bridges in just the New York Metropolitan region. His work is dazzling. He introduced many engineering innovations. His accomplishments are equal or greater to any bridge engineer in the 20th century, yet Ammann is a name that is too often unsung. Can you describe your approach to painting a bridge? If possible, I always walk the bridges I paint. I like to meet each bridge, run my hand across its rough wires and girders, and feel the rumble beneath my feet of the cars and sometimes trains crossing it. Even though my subject matter is mechanical, my emotional feelings are not. I sense the freedom when you are high up on the bridge, the space that the steel girders capture, that play of negative and positive space creat-
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A N TO N I O M AS I ing tension. The ridged steel against the light atmosphere, the sense of motion and solidity. When I meet a bridge, I always have my camera and sketchpad with me. That’s how I start. As an artist, you have said you use an “engineer’s eye.” Can you explain? Each bridge’s structural development interests me. No matter its size, each bridge is a mix of pins, wires, bolts, angles, curves, beams, and masonry. I study how these objects fit together, striving to understand basic engineering principles and then incorporate this knowledge into each painting. I want to be as true as possible to the engineer’s structural design. Many of my paintings, especially in the Williamsburg Bridge series, reflect my interest in engineering and structural development.
A tremendous variety of style in your paintings exists. Some seem to be pure mood and mist and largely devoid of detail. Others are hyper-realistic with draftsmanship worthy of Rembrandt. Why this great variation? Thank you for the comparison to the Master. Like many painters, I have a basketful of styles. But whatever I paint, I am always mood driven. Sometimes the mood is sunny. Sometimes it is dark. Yet, even in my most moody and nuanced work,
Guardian - Queensboro Bridge
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What other elements in your paintings are important? I look at a bridge as cooperation between engineers, architects and artists. I also see a bridge in terms of place. How does a bridge fit into its immediate surroundings and into the city? In addition, I want the viewers to feel where I was standing, see what I saw. That somehow they are there. Sensing the massive structures, the surroundings, the feeling of the neighborhood, the time of day, the time of year or the temperature of the moment. I hope they become part of my painting, so that the suggested areas, they can complete in their minds. A sense of place is important to me.
51-1/4” x 36-1/4” Watercolor and body color on 240# Arches rough watercolor paper As a kid, I grew up on 74th Street and Second Avenue and often walked by the 59th Street (Queensboro) Bridge. Two small turreted buildings on the bridge flanked its entrance. These buildings seemed to be guardians of the bridge. One day as I studied one of the buildings—the one on the north side—I saw the tram moving against the solid structure of the bridge. My goal in the “Guardian” is to reveal simultaneously a play of opposites—the solid bridge against the moving tram. I also wanted to reveal—in a balanced way—the tension between these two structures.
View from Below - Williamsburg Bridge
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60” x 40” Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches rough watercolor paper The Williamsburg Bridge, opened in 1903, is a suspension bridge that crosses the East River and connects the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. My inspiration for the painting occurred as I walked across the bridge on a day that the sun kept going in and out. I saw the girders penetrating the sky and the monolithic structure of the tower soaring skyward. But more than anything, it was that peek-a-boo day that was the emotion behind the painting.
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You are known as a watercolor artist, but many of your watercolor paintings look like oil paintings. Can you elaborate? Although watercolor is a thin medium, it can be applied in a juicy manner and thereby it expresses the heaviest subjects imaginable. Yet, using watercolor also allows me to express the delicate aspects of bold subjects. In sum, watercolor, defying the old-fashioned expectations of the medium as wishywashy, gives me tremendous flexibility. Can you identify your finest painting? No I can’t because I haven’t painted it yet. I hope I never paint it. I don’t want to be like Marcel Duchamp who, after painting Nude Descending the Staircase, felt he had reached the zenith of his work and retired from painting. I want to keep working. Do you have a favorite bridge? When I am on the Queensboro Bridge, I am home. What’s so special about the Queensboro Bridge? In 1947, when I was seven years old, I emigrated with my parents and seven siblings from Italy to New York City. Fifty years earlier, my grandfather, Francesco, had hauled steel as a part of the workforce that built the Queensboro Bridge. My grandfather’s bridge-building tales were retold in the family. I was intrigued by the stories. Even then, I always loved to draw. Upon my family’s arrival in New York, I was deeply drawn by the beauty of the city’s iconic bridges, but most especially the Queensboro. It is also a cantilever bridge
Street View of Manhattan Bridge
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I strive to truthfully replicate each bridge’s place, structure and architecture. I grant you that in some paintings the viewer must work harder than in other paintings to find these truthful replications. And they often differ from viewer to viewer. Sometimes a viewer will find them in a work I had not even intended. I love surprises.
60”x40” Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches rough watercolor paper Strolling in Brooklyn’s “DUMBO,” I passed the Manhattan Bridge, the last of the three suspension bridges over the lower East River. While walking north toward Flatbush Avenue, I turned and instantly saw what I would paint. In “Street View of Manhattan Bridge,” the artistic, engineering, and architectural forms join to create a true sense of place
Sunday Morning 2 - Queensboro Bridge
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40” x 30” Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches watercolor paper This work was completed shortly after returning from a trip to the Arizona desert. Its genesis began during a Sunday morning walk across the Queensboro Bridge when I spied a steel girder (please note it on the right of the painting) that instantly reminded me of a cactus that I’d recently painted. The girder, like the cactus, stood majestic in its isolation. Each had its own characteristics and specific artistic value. Interestingly, when painting the New York City girder I felt the same peaceful and expansive feeling as when painting that Arizona cactus.
To Purchase Antonio’s Work Original paintings and Giclee prints of select works are available for purchase. Contact Antonio Masi at amasi@optonline.net or go to:
www.antoniomasi.com
Foggy Day - Manhattan Bridge 40” x 60” Watercolor and body color on 300# rough watercolor paper One evening in Brooklyn’s “DUMBO” (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), as I walked to the subway, a misty fog enveloped the bridge. Everything looked out of focus. The moment, wondrous and emotional, caught my eye.
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A N TO N I O M AS I and the last of the Victorian Gilded Age structures revealed by its ironwork ornaments. When did you first walk across it? I took my first walk across the Queensboro in 1948. I was eight years old. At the time, the Queensboro was 39 years old, not even middle aged if a bridge’s lifespan is calculated to be 100-plus years. Over the years, I have seen the Queensboro mature. I have seen its creeping age—the pitted roadways, incessant rust, corrosion and peeling paint. But during the past few decades, I have also seen the good work of the city’s bridge engineers and am amazed and delighted at the bridge’s restoration. In 2009, the New York City Bridge Centennial Commission celebrated the Queensboro’s 100th birthday. I think it will stand another 100 years. So when did you start painting New York City’s major bridges? It wasn’t until 2000, at age sixty after raising three children. I sold my business, a printing and art studio, and was finally able to fulfill my boyhood dream of painting NYC’s major bridges. I started—honoring the work and words of my grandfather—with the Queensboro. What do you think your grandfather would think of your paintings? He would be pleased to know that he inspired them. If he were alive today he would recognize the bridge he helped build. However, I don’t think he would recognize New York City in the 21st century. But I believe he’d soon see, as I do, that the Queensboro—and New York’s other iconic bridges—has given us the potential to become so much more than we ever dreamt possible. Anything else Francesco might say? He’d thank Gustav Lindenthal. Who was Gustave Lindenthal? Another unsung engineer–he was chief engineer of the Queensboro Bridge. F
Willie B - Williamsburg Bridge 60” x 40”, Watercolor and body color on 300#Arches rough watercolor paper All bridges serve the same function. They allow trains, people, and vehicles to connect. But each bridge is unique in its detail and engineering. I began this painting, as I do all my bridge paintings, by “meeting” my subject. I walked the bridge, touched its girders and felt its springy movement beneath my feet as vehicles whizzed across it. I also made quick sketches and took pictures.
NY Tramway 2 - Queensboro Bridge 51-1/4”x 36-1/4”, Watercolor and body color on 240# Arches rough watercolor paper Even though my subject matter is mechanical, my emotional feeling about subject matter is not. In this painting, I sense the freedom one has high up on the bridge, the space that the steel girders capture, and that interaction of negative and positive space that creates tension. I aspired to create the space surrounding the forms. I manipulated “spatial construction,” something engineers understand.
Evening Approaching - RFK Bridge (formerly the Triborough Bridge)
40�x30� Watercolor and body color on 300#Arches watercolor paper In this painting, I tried not to look at the individual girders but at the relationship between the girders. They were abstract one moment, realistic the next. This painting has great interest for me because I hoped to create an endless tension, and, at the same time, maintain a structural order.
Dappling Light - Cross Bronx Expressway to the GW Bridge 40� x 60�, Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches watercolor paper A friend and I were driving to the George Washington Bridge by way of the Cross Bronx Expressway. As we approached the underpasses, under the buildings, a pattern of opposites, lights and darks, rapidly appeared and disappeared. To create order amidst this confusion, I organized not the similarities, but the differences, the negative and positive shapes, and a composite of within and without.
View from Tram - Queensboro Bridge 60” x 40” Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches rough watercolor paper Cubist painter George Braque said: “I do not believe in things, but in relations between them.” Braque was saying that the association of the parts in a picture, not the objects, is significant; this is a very insightful statement. In this painting, the view is from the tram in the air, riding towards the Manhattan station. I wanted to capture the height, the openness, the feeling of being suspended and the vastness of the view. In this painting, the relationships of the tram, the buildings and the negative spaces functioning together are “significant.”
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Support Arm - The Williamsburg Bridge 40”x60” Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches rough watercolor paper
Engineers create form. And I use form as a starting point from which to develop my paintings. The strong diagonal thrusting into space, and the other girders reaching out to capture space. Stirred by the forms, I like to take the structure and let my imagination play with it. I use realistic and figurative images in an abstract way.
30”x22” Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches rough watercolor paper
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Walk on the Bridge - Queensboro Bridge
In this painting I attempted to set in motion the spatial tension by receding and advancing values of contrasts and color. We read shapes by means of light rays; here is a brilliant sun almost diffusing the steel girders, contrasted with the deep shadows on the lower portion of the same girders to express solidity. I was not so much attempting the representation of forms, but the visional force and relationship of the moment.
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Alone on the Williamsburg Bridge
40”x60”, Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches rough watercolor paper. This painting is a result of many walks across the bridge. The more I walked, the more I appreciated the beauty and complexity of the Williamsburg’s engineering. A bridge, in addition to carrying heavy loads, must carry its own weight and also resist rust, warping, buckling, weather, and other unanticipated stresses. Without the engineer’s correct calculations, disaster looms.
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Underbelly - Manhattan Bridge
60”x40”, Watercolor and body color on 300” Arches rough watercolor paper Standing underneath a massive structure is overwhelming. There is a tension, a dynamism, a rush of blood through one’s body; one reacts primarily to the proportions of the entity. At the same time, my sense of smell, sight, touch, and hearing are engaged. The art of the bridge is based on these forces and connections.
Broken Window - Manhattan Bridge 40�x 30�, Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches rough watercolor paper There is a lunchroom in this printing plant in Brooklyn, where I used to work. From the window you could see two bridges, the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge. I wanted to establish a balance between the outer and inner space. To alternate between the internal and external, so I created the broken panel of glass and smudged the rest of the panes.
Under the Bridge Queensboro Bridge 40” x 60” Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches rough watercolor paper Working on a large scale helps convey the massiveness of my subjects while also capturing a sense of place. Working large also affords a freedom that greatly adds to the power of the finished work. The force and strength of the penetrating planes and the rhythm of masses combine to create a mighty impression. For me, “Under the Bridge” represents a peak moment of inspiration.
Colossus - George Washington Bridge 40�x30�, Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches rough watercolor paper One afternoon driving back from New Jersey with a friend, the top of the George Washington Bridge appeared to fade into the sky. The challenge was to start with image and effectively subtract and abstract the top of the bridge at different stages, until I finally arrived at the basic message of the original concept. The more one abstracts, the greater the importance of balance.
The Trip Home - Manhattan Bridge 30”x40”, Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches rough watercolor paper In this painting I was trying to achieve an association of visual forms and a rich hide-and-seek rapport. Creative seeing, feeling, and thinking in relationships are not a series of isolated phenomena. Simply put, I wanted to create a sense of what I was doing, which was “going home.”
Pillars - Manhattan Bridge 30”x40”, Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches rough watercolor paper Pillars should demonstrate in a clear form a feeling of stability. They are the rock of the bridge; everything rests upon them. Artists often miss them. That’s a pity!
Flag - George Washington Bridge 40”x60”, Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches rough watercolor paper A painting of a bridge is a depiction of an engineering vision and also a painting in its own right. I am concerned with atmosphere as well as the strict qualities of the structure. In this painting, my key vision was the flag. By simplifying and controlling the flag, I captured what was important in the painting. In the end, I wanted the images in the painting to grow spontaneously within its own structure.
View from Bridge - Queensboro Bridge 30”x40”, Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches rough watercolor paper “View from the Bridge” was primarily a study of proportions of the shapes of objects, the relationships between width and length, and between width and height, and between all these dimensions and depth in space. Andrea di Pietro da Padova stated that, “harmonies of spatial dimensions are harmonies for the eye.”
Light Traffic - Verrazano Bridge 40”x30”, Watercolor and body color on 300# Arches rough watercolor paper. The Verrazano Bridge reflects a mastery of the modern materials that engineers use. It is not the artist’s task to compete with the engineer. Nor is it the engineer’s task to compete with the artist. Rather it is the collaboration of engineer and artist, which results in the interrelatedness of art and engineering.
Paintings and Giclees How to Own a “Bridgescape”
Antonio’s original paintings are available for purchase (please call for pricing information). In addition, the artist is offering a small selection of his work as limited edition Giclees, which come with a certificate of authenticity and is signed and numbered by the artist. A Giclee print (pronounced zhee-klay) does not use a screen or mechanical devise and therefore has no visible dot pattern. A Giclee print has all the values, colors and continuous tones of the original picture. The inks are special fade-resistant archival inks that should be kept away from direct sunlight, (Indeed, all paintings and fine prints should be kept away from direct sunlight). Although a Giclee can be printed on any surface, Antonio’s Giclees are printed on fine-grade watercolor paper. The finished reproduction is as close to the original painting as possible.
If you see a painting that has not been printed yet, Antonio will consider transforming it into a Gilcee. Giclee Pricing: 60” x 40” $1900 40” x 30” $975
30” x 20” 20” x 14”
Willie B – Williamsburg Bridge Available sizes 60”x 40” or 30”x20”
$495 $195
(Please add $25 for shipping and handling)
Contact Artist Antonio Masi 516-455-6601 amasi@optonline.net
Sales Assistance Joan Dim 917-282-8435 joan.dim@nyu.edu
To see more of Antonio’s work and view images in full frame, visit www.antoniomasi.com
59th Street Nocturne
Available sizes 60”x 40” or 40”x 30”
Cobblestones
Available sizes 30”x 20” or 20”x16”
59th Street Melody
Available sizes 30”x 40” or 20”x16”
NY Tramway II
Available sizes 60”x 40” or 20”x 16”
Sunset Brooklyn Bridge I
Available sizes 60”x 40” or 40”x30”
l ayou t d e s i g n e d by J ames.K ele h er@ g mail.com
Broken Window
Available sizes 40”x 30” or 20”x16”