The painting is in the Newman Vertical Campus of Baruch College. It is an illustration of The Flatiron Building located in Manhattan, NYC. Here we see the building almost symmetrical while depiction the realistic background that occurs here in NY. We see the heavy traffic, large buildings, and people depicted in this frame. The picture implied the day to day life of a city environment near one of the very popular buildings in Manhattan. Starting in the late 1990s, the neighborhood’s transition into a premier location for upscale dining, shopping, and sightseeing was fueled in part by the building’s ongoing appeal. The Flatiron Building is now mostly occupied by publishing companies, with a few ground level stores.
The artist Red Grooms born on 1937 in Nashville, TN uses perspective distortions in The Flatiron Building to highlight the structure’s distinctive features and the expansive views of lower Manhattan that come with being situated where Broadway and Fifth Avenue converge. The Flatiron Building divides what seems to be a river of constantly flowing people and cars into two streams.
Grooms enjoys making fun of the frantic and carefree nature of New Yorkers as they navigate the traffic of vehicles and buses, walking their dogs, rushing to appointments, riding bicycles or rollerblades, or just stepping out in time with the city’s beat. Red Grooms has resided in New York City. Groom’s corpus of work emphasizes the city’s architectural icons and epic scale.
Baruch College is located right on Lexington and 23rd. It’s not a university in a rural or suburban area. Its location is in a busy area. Thousands of students walking in and out enjoying that city life. This picture depicts what NYC is really like. It’s not just black and white tall buildings. There is color to sightseeing in the city. The bright taxi cars to the big red tour buses. NYC brings everyone together and we can see that through this painting. We see diversity. We see people of different races, genders, and personality. This image makes me feel included. As a person who commutes to the city everyday, this picture accurately depicts the outside. The flatiron building is obviously right in the middle but as the audience that isn’t the whole point of the painting. The background is.
I found you description of the painter very helpful for me to understand the context of the painting. The fact that he liked to make fun of the frantic and care free nature of New York rubs off on the painting.
I liked your post was very descriptive with a lot of facts and context about the vertical campus. This can be very useful for people who do not know the history of the college.
I like how you connected the depiction of the painting, how it combines every day life in NY to the actual location and significance of Baruch college.
I like how you were able to compare the picture settings to our environment outside the school, it’s so easy to overlook it since we see it everyday.