Object number1987.53.97
United Nations, New York City
Datec. 1956
Artist
Rosalie Thorne McKenna
(American, 1918-2003)
CultureAmerican
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 9 9/16 x 9 15/16 in. (24.3 x 25.2 cm)
Matted: 22 x 16 in. (55.9 x 40.6 cm)
Matted: 22 x 16 in. (55.9 x 40.6 cm)
Credit LineGift of the artist
On View
Not on viewPeriod20th c
Classification(s)
InscribedOn verso, by artist, center in pencil: UN XI / #18; possibly by artist, center in ink: United Nations - N.Y. CA 1956; by unidentified hand, lower right corner in pencil: 87.53.97
MarkingsOn verso, partially obscured stamp upper left corner: PHOTO BY: / ROLLIE McKENNA / [copyright credit label] / Please Credit With Photo; ASMP MEMBER / AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGAZINE PHOTOGRAPHERS
On printed label, on verso upper left corner: © Rollie McKenna, Photographer / 1 Hancox Street / Stonington, CT 06378 / (203) 535-0110/2126
ProvenanceGift of the artistVassar Exhibitions
Label TextOne of McKenna’s magazine assignments was to photograph the thirty-nine-story United Nations building designed by a group of ten international architects. Completed in 1951, the UN headquarters was the first skyscraper in New York City to use a glass curtain wall. McKenna created over fifty photographs of the interior and exterior, capturing the modernist spirit of the building itself as well as the culture it engendered for employees and visitors. She experimented with various viewpoints of the exterior, landing on a wide-angled view from above. Several images capture the curved slope of the lower building and the wide stripes of the plaza floor, accented by a backdrop of the city’s industrial past as smokestacks can be seen across the river.
Most remarkable are her photographs of the glass tower, which show large expanses of the reflective surface calling attention to the design’s deliberate rejection of the older ornate styles of the city in favor of sleek, minimal lines of the modern age. McKenna’s close-up exterior composition owes a debt to Berenice Abbott not only in her emphasis on line and geometry, but also in the stark contrast between a silhouetted female figure and metal railing in the foreground and the gridded pattern of the building facade.
DescriptionGlass façade of United Nations building with guards at entry gate and multiple cars parked and movingTerms
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