Grand Canal America

Gerald K. Geerling's nocturnal view shows the dramatically lit forms of towering twin buildings beside a broad reflecting canal, with another pair of lower buildings set behind, as lights probe the sky in the background. This striking image features several of the buildings that comprised the Hall of Sciences complex at Chicago's 1933 Century of Progress International Exposition, a world's fair dedicated to celebrating technological innovation and commemorating the centennial of the city's incorporation. Geerling emphasizes some of the fair's distinctive lighting effects: the illumination of the bas-reliefs on the façade of the Radio and Communication Building's two pylons; the glow from sparkling fountain jets within the crescent-shaped Court of Electricity; and the dazzling displays of colored search beams that swept across Chicago's skyline each evening of the fair's duration. Together, the dramatic lighting, nighttime setting, and vertical format of the print, which aggrandizes the yet greater height of the towers, capture contemporary faith in scientific and technological advancement. Geerling's title evokes the Grand Canal of Venice, the venerable Italian city's watery main thoroughfare, as a metaphor for America's emerging mastery of the world through material progress.

In his technically rigorous intaglio prints, Geerlings achieved a photographic precision ably demonstrated in Grand Canal America. Between 1926 and 1933, the artist made thirty-one prints, many of which won awards; this print received a first prize when it was displayed at the Century of Progress fair. Despite the critical success of this print, which was published by the Chicago Society of Etchers in an edition of one hundred, the economic depression curtailed any sales. After he made it, Geerlings ceased printmaking for several decades, concentrating instead on other facets of his architectural career.

Czestochowski, Joseph S. Gerald K. Geerlings. (exh. cat., Cedar Rapids Art Association). Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Cedar Rapids Art Association, 1984. Text pp. 14, 17, 20, 71; ill. p. 17 (black & white), no. 31, p. 58 (black & white).

Gerald Geerlings: A Retrospective Exhibition of Prints, 1926–1988. (exh. cat., Associated Museum Artists). New York: Associated Museum Artists, 1989. No. 28.

Graphic Excursions: American Prints in Black and White, 1900–1950. (exh. cat., American Federation of Arts). Boston, Massachusetts: David R. Godine, Publisher, Inc. in association with The American Federation of Arts, 1991. Ill. no. 42.