CITYSCAPE PAINTINGS

Cityscapes came into their own with the work of the Dutch master, Vermeer, and his depictions of his beloved and picturesque Delft.  Once the subject had been authenticated for a serious study, artists from London to Venice sought to capture their native cities for the ages.  Cityscapes from such talents as Canaletto and Caillebotte proved once and for all that cityscape paintings were on a par with nature paintings and rural landscapes.  As we move into the 20^th century with its abstract movement, the geometric shapes prevailing in any city prove to be perfect for providing inspiration for form and color, angles and tones of darkness.  Who could not see cubism in the Manhattan skyline?  Collectors will press artists to create on canvas a city’s sometimes jagged, sometimes regular polygons.  The artist’s eye will pick out the relevant shapes for his vision of art, and a piece will take shape as fast as any commissioner for art would desire.

When we think of cityscapes, we think of skylines, but other urban subjects abound.  Railroad yards, building sites, industrial sites and even the familiar suburbs have abstract paintings.  The dynamics of everyday life in a certain urban time and place attain immortality on canvas.  The flow of nature in a landscape is replicated in a cityscape by the flow of a city’s rhythms of light and dark, movement and stillness inherent in a man-made environment.

As long as we’re thinking outside the box regarding cityscapes, what about an aerial view of a city?  It’s almost like a roadmap, but with much more personality.  Someone unfamiliar with a city may gaze at London’s Big Ben and Thames River and see the tie-in between Man’s constructs and the constructs of Nature.  An aerial view of a city transposed  into a cityscape may guide the viewer into a completely new appreciation for his or her favorite city.  There is a lot more to cityscapes than skylines.

An abstract cityscape can be of a city in the morning, breathing in her commuters as she readies herself for the busy day.  At noontime, the city pauses to rest and the office workers head to the nearest park with their bag lunches and gossip, while the blue-collar workers leave off work for their lunchboxes and thermoses of coffee to gear themselves up for the afternoon’s hard physical labor.  When the city exhales at quitting time, the tenor of the city changes, too, as people relax and perhaps head to a Happy Hour before undertaking the homeward commute.  And then again, at night the city shows off her finery, lit up and ready for a party.  A well-done abstract cityscape can take the viewer along for the bustling day’s ride in any number of ways.

As for a place to hang your cityscape, you might consider a juxtaposition of business and calm, as placing an aquarium in front of a cityscape.  The peace of nature and the lights of the aquarium offer food for thought and your guests will remark upon the contrast when they consider the cityscape you have chosen, displayed in soft lighting behind it.