Stairway

Margaret Lowengrund

In the mid 1920s Margaret Lowengrund was studying printmaking with Joseph Pennell and Charles Locke at the Art Students League in New York where she honed her lithographic skills. Since 1923 she had been sporadically publishing sketches of of the working class and the back streets of Philadelphia for the Evening Star newspaper, a feature titled "Just Little Sketches 'Round Our Town'. She continued this commercial pursuit after moving to New York. Her ability to process unusual angles and views and depict the humanity of the streets carried into her fine printmaking.

This early career two-color lithograph was done in 1933, the year she also depicted the homelessness and gritty neighborhoods of Manhattan and Ellis Island, and then worked for the Royal Netherlands and Grace Lines aboard cruise ships, which transported her to new and exotic locations. Some of these works were published in American Traveler.

This Modernist stairway is almost like an M.C. Escher view with steep stairs twisting around and upward, seeming splitting into two parts at the top. In the background appears to be a mirror - with no apparant floor. A tenament torture chamber. The green highlighting only adds to the mystery.

This image preceeds the W.P.A. of the mid 30s, but like the project only had an edition of 25. This impression is annotated "To Arthur From Margaret, 1936" and is numbered "19" in blue pencil. On the verso is a stamp that reads: "Nov 27 1933."

Lowengrund went on to found "The Contemporaries" Gallery in New York in 1951 and make printmaking history, documented in the exhibition and book "A Model Workshop....", published by the Print Center of New York. ISBN: 978-3-774-4152-8.