Skip to main content
Collections Menu
(American, 1905–1984)

Pop's Tavern

1934
Drypoint and aquatint on off-white wove paper
Plate: 6 1/8 x 10 1/16 in. (15.6 x 25.6 cm)
Sheet: 10 x 13 13/16 in. (25.4 x 35.1 cm)
Mat: 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm)
Credit LineTerra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection
Object number1995.41
SignedIn graphite lower right: Landeck 1934-
Interpretation
Deriving its title from the prominent restaurant sign hanging from the building in the right foreground, Armin Landeck's Pop's Tavern provides an oblique glimpse of a nearly deserted narrow side-street in New York City at night. Two figures loiter outside the illuminated window of a laundry shop on the left; further up the street, a lone pedestrian moves along the sidewalk beneath a lit theater sign near an alley. Two cars are parked along the curb, facing a wider, more brightly lit street just glimpsed in the distance. Along with the tavern sign, the grill of a fire escape, a typical urban detail, breaks into the vista on the right. The aspiring commercialism of the homey tavern sign contrasts with the hushed atmosphere of this seemingly overlooked byway, an oasis in the typical urban tumult of the surrounding city. Landeck used aquatint to create varying dark tones that evoke the range of shadows cloaking this Greenwich Village scene, punctuated by glowing lights.

   New York City views inspired many of the prints Armin Landeck made during a productive decade beginning in the early 1930s. During that time, the artist owned a family home in Connecticut but rented workspace in the city to maintain a toehold in its stimulating art world. This quiet night cityscape shows the view from Landeck's studio on Christopher Street, in the West Greenwich Village neighborhood. Its focus on an unpretentious street of small businesses epitomized by Pop's Tavern contrasts with other prints in which Landeck, like many of his contemporaries, presents Manhattan in vast urban panoramas of soaring skyscrapers. The hushed intimacy of Pop's Tavern, as well as its high window vantage point, recall Edward Hopper's earlier Night Shadows (TF 1995.7).
ProvenanceThe artist
Margo Pollins Schab, Inc., New York, New York
Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1995
Exhibition History
Visions of a Nation: Exploring Identity through American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, August 10, 1996–January 12, 1997.

Paris-New York, aller-retour. Une Modernité américaine en formation, 1875–1940. Oeuvres des collections de la Terra Foundation for the Arts et des Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens (Paris-New York, Roundtrip. American Modernism in the Making, 1875–1940. Works from the Terra Foundation for the Arts and the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens) Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, September 15–November 30, 2002. [exh. cat.]

Le Temps des loisirs : peintures américaines (At Leisure: American Paintings), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, July 15–October 31, 2007.

La Ville Magique (The Magical City), Lille Métropole Musée d'Art Moderne d'Art Contemporain et d'Art Brut, Lille, France (organizer). Venue: Lille Métropole Musée d'Art Moderne d'Art Contemporain et d'Art Brut, Lille, France, September 29, 2012–January 15, 2013. [exh. cat.]
Published References
Kraeft, June and Norman. Armin Landeck: The Catalog Raisonné of His Prints. Bethlehem, Connecticut: June 1 Gallery, 1977. No. 45, p. 83.

Sharp, Ellen et al. Master Prints of Five Centuries: The Alan and Marianne Schwartz Collection. (exh. cat., The Detroit Institute of Arts). Detroit, Michigan: The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1990. No. 56, p. 81.

Kraeft, June and Norman Kraeft. Armin Landeck: The Catalogue Raisonné of His Prints. Rev. ed. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1994. K. 45, p. 83 (black & white).

La Ville Magique. (exh. cat., Lille Métropole Musée d'Art Moderne d'Art Contemporain et d'Art Brut). Lille, France: Lille Métropole Musée d'Art Moderne d'Art Contemporain et d'Art Brut and Editions Gaillmard, 2012. Ill. cat. no. 159, p. 180 (color).