Manhattan Moonlight
Item
Title
Manhattan Moonlight
Creator
Armin Landeck
American, 1905–1984
American, 1905–1984
Date
1947
Materials
Drypoint and engraving
Measurements
Plate: 12 x 14-1/2 in. (30.5 x 36.8 cm)
Description
Although he studied architecture as an undergraduate, first at the University of Michigan and then in New York at Columbia University, Armin Landeck also developed a curiosity for prints. By the time he graduated from Columbia in 1927, he was pulling his own etchings on a secondhand press he had acquired, and finding an eager market for them through Kennedy Galleries. Unable to find regular work as an architect, a task that was especially difficult after the stock market crash in 1929, Landeck decided to dedicate himself to printmaking. Settling in East Cornwall, Connecticut, he supported himself and a growing family with various teaching opportunities until 1935, when he was offered a position at the Brearly School, a private K–12 school in Manhattan, which secured him permanent employment until his retirement in 1958.
Landeck worked exclusively in etching and drypoint for the first fifteen years of his career. A chance meeting with Stanley William Hayter in 1941 led to an invitation to study at Hayter’s New York workshop, Atelier 17, where he was introduced to the expressive possibilities of engraving. The lessons took awhile to set in. Although Landeck managed to work the burin into his intaglios almost immediately, it wasn’t until 1951 that he felt comfortable enough to relinquish etching entirely and approach the plate strictly as an engraver. After that point, all but three of the prints he produced during the remainder of his career were engravings. Manhattan Moonlight, from 1947, is thus a transitional effort. It would be another four years before the powerfully engraved moon rays here, laid over the architectural details drawn more softly in drypoint, would become the predominate gesture in his printmaking.
Landeck worked exclusively in etching and drypoint for the first fifteen years of his career. A chance meeting with Stanley William Hayter in 1941 led to an invitation to study at Hayter’s New York workshop, Atelier 17, where he was introduced to the expressive possibilities of engraving. The lessons took awhile to set in. Although Landeck managed to work the burin into his intaglios almost immediately, it wasn’t until 1951 that he felt comfortable enough to relinquish etching entirely and approach the plate strictly as an engraver. After that point, all but three of the prints he produced during the remainder of his career were engravings. Manhattan Moonlight, from 1947, is thus a transitional effort. It would be another four years before the powerfully engraved moon rays here, laid over the architectural details drawn more softly in drypoint, would become the predominate gesture in his printmaking.
Source
Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University.
Identifier
84.6
Rights
This image is posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. Other uses are not permitted.