As I long for my New York now far away during pandemic, these images at Craig Starr’s gallery really touched a nerve. Though painters like Yvonne Jacquette and the Ashcan school as well as many important photographers always used New York as a foreground rather than background, so too did these print, etching and lithograph makers who had their eye on the changing architecturescape of the city. Here we find icons like the Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, subways and the Woolworth Building in their very early years. Starr always has very interesting niche exhibitions with very original curation and I applaud this largely black and white effort in the face of so much big color coming at us this fall in other galleries. (and in the same spirit, NYU Grey Art Gallery is relaunching its digital platform for their wonderful live exhibition from 2008 New York Cool from a later period, the 50's-80's. See my write-up for a longer look at that exhibition)

Louis Lozowick New York - 1923, Lithograph

Jan Matulka Arrangement - c. 1925, Lithograph

All images courtesy Craig F. Starr Gallery