Under the Boardwalk

Harry Brodsky's Under the Boardwalk features the strong vertical and horizontal geometry presented by structural supports on the underside of a boardwalk of the kind that line many urban beachfronts, such as those along the southern New Jersey shore, long the pleasure-ground of ordinary citizens of the artist's native Philadelphia. Brodsky relished the challenge of accurately rendering the scene's vista of deeply receding elements-the framing members of the boardwalk surface, the upright timber supports, and their shadows-as they progress toward a vanishing point in the distance near the center of the image. He exploited the tonal qualities of lithography to alternate light areas and shading, creating a dynamic visual pattern that in turn conveys the illusion of spatial recession on the two-dimensional surface of the paper.

Under the Boardwalk dates to the approximate time when Brodsky, who had worked mainly in the arena of social realism, began also to explore the abstract design elements of everyday objects and scenes. To make this impression, Brodsky collaborated with Theodore Cuno, a Philadelphia-area master lithography printer who also printed for such important artists as Joseph Pennell and Benton Murdoch Spruance.

L'Amérique et les Modernes, 1900–1950 (American Moderns, 1900–1950), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, July 25–October 31, 2000. [exh. cat.]

Atelier 17: Modern Printmaking in the Americas (Atelier 17: Gravura moderna nas Américas,  Museu De Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC-USP) and Terra Foundation for American Art (organizer).  Venue: Museu De Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC-USP), March 23–June 2, 2019. [exh. cat.]

 Terra Collection-in-Residence, Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology, Oxford, United Kingdom, September 15, 2022–September 30, 2026.