Skip to main content
Advanced Search
Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
Third Avenue El
Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
Held by the artist.

Third Avenue El

Artist/Maker (United States, 1898 - 1991)
Date1936 (printed 1979)
Mediumgelatin silver print
DimensionsSight: 19 1/8 x 15 1/4 in. (48.6 x 38.7 cm)
Mat: 30 x 24 in. (76.2 x 61 cm)
ClassificationsVisual Works
Credit LineGift of Safra Bank through Vito S. Portera
Terms
    Object number83.0141
    On View
    Not on view
    Collections
    DescriptionElevated railways were first built in 1867 as an experiment, and then extended piecemeal around the city. A popular and essential means of transportation, sooty, steam powered trains circled and crisscrossed Manhattan on tracks, making the upper reaches of Manhattan accessible to the lower, and encouraging real estate development. Originally, the subway (the first section of underground, electrified tracks opened in 1904) connected to the elevated tracks, which towered above the avenues. It was not until the 1940s, by which time an expanded subway system serviced the rest of New York's boroughs, that Els were phased out, permanently altering Manhattan's cityscape. Berenice Abbott's use of black and white is especially effective in this composition, which, even as it preserves evidence of a disappearing rail system, also investigates abstract form.
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Bowling Green, New York
    Jafir
    1930
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Street Vendors
    Mortimer Borne
    1937
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Mola
    Guna people
    not dated
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Eternal Hexagon 6
    Robert Indiana
    1964
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Washington Square
    Everett Shinn
    1931
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Madonna and Child in Glory
    Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo
    ca. 1535
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Treasury Building from J. P. Morgan's Office
    Berenice Abbott
    1938 (printed 1979)
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Sunday Funnies
    Red Grooms
    1985
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Columbus Circle
    Berenice Abbott
    1936 (printed 1979)
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Builders of Babylon
    Samuel L. Margolies
    1949
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Chicken Market
    Berenice Abbott
    1937 (printed 1979)
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Department of Docks Building, Pier A
    Berenice Abbott
    1936 (printed 1979)
    eMuseum
    Copyright © eMuseum