{"data":{"id":"3900","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":3900,"topgoose_id":16182,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":3900,"title":"Third Avenue Elevated #1","display_artist_text":"Ralston Crawford","display_date":"1951","accession_number":"71.144","dimensions":"Sheet (Irregular): 13 × 19 3/4 in. (33 × 50.2 cm)\r\nImage: 10 7/16 × 17 3/8 in. (26.5 × 44.1 cm)","medium":"Lithograph","department":"collection","classification":"Prints","credit_line":"Gift of Charles Simon","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":null,"edition":"30/55","publication_info":"Printed by Desjobert","description":"\u003cp\u003eRalston Crawford, \u003cem\u003eThird Avenue Elevated #1\u003c/em\u003e, 1951. Lithograph, sheet (Irregular): 13 × 19 3/4 in. (33 × 50.2 cm)\r\nImage: 10 7/16 × 17 3/8 in. (26.5 × 44.1 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Charles Simon 71.144. © Ralston Crawford Estate / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003eAfter photographing the elevated trains in Lower Manhattan during the 1940s, Ralston Crawford translated these images into other media, including prints. He particularly favored lithography for its potential to create simplified forms and pared down geometries—he called it “a most reductive medium.” In 1951, Crawford completed the \u003ci\u003eThird Avenue Elevated\u003c/i\u003e lithographs, a series of eight images printed in Paris. In these works, including \u003ci\u003eThird Avenue Elevated #1\u003c/i\u003e, he arranged the composition into flat planes of color, in which the subject is deliberately lost in pattern. Describing his process, the artist stated: “I don’t feel obligated to reveal the forms. They may be totally absent to the viewer of the work, or even to myself, but what is there, however abstract, grows out of something that I have seen.” The crisp, planar style Crawford developed in prints such as \u003ci\u003eThird Avenue Elevated #1\u003c/i\u003e anticipated the hard-edged painting that came into prominence in the late 1950s.\u003c/p\u003e","ai_alt_text":"Bold yellow geometric shapes and diagonal stripes contrast against a solid black background.","alt_text":null,"visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-30T17:30:45.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-02-06T12:01:13.362-05:00","images":[{"id":95647,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/3900/71_144_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"301","type":"artist"}]}}}}