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Object Timeline

-0001

1929

  • Work on this object began.

1930

  • Work on this object ended.

1992

  • We acquired this object.

2016

2017

2025

  • You found it!

Drawing, Abstract Cityscape

This is a Drawing. It was designed by Winold Reiss. It is dated 1929–30 and we acquired it in 1992. Its medium is graphite, orange crayon on wove paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

As a young man, Winold Reiss trained as an artist in Munich before immigrating to America in 1913. As a working artist in New York City, he established a reputation for producing bold graphics and colorful modern interiors. During the 1920s, he was hired to illustrate important figures of the Harlem Renaissance for several publications. This abstract illustration of a cityscape is likely a preparatory study for a commission. The jumbled, angular rendering suggests the hyperactive nature of an urban environment enduring rapid growth.

This object was donated by Anonymous. It is credited Gift of Anonymous Donor.

  • Painting, Brooklyn Bridge
  • oil on canvas.
  • Lent by Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of Collection Société Anonyme,....
  • 65.2016.9

Our curators have highlighted 10 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

  • Drawing (USA)
  • black marking pen, collage, graphite on tracing paper, mounted on white....
  • Gift of Simon Lissim.
  • 1974-82-18
  •
  • Textile, Big City
  • cotton.
  • Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund.
  • 2007-5-2

Its dimensions are

H x W: 14 × 21.5 cm (5 1/2 × 8 7/16 in.)

It has the following markings

Stamp on verso in brown ink, lower left: Winold/Reiss

Cite this object as

Drawing, Abstract Cityscape; Designed by Winold Reiss (American, b. Germany, 1886–1953); USA; graphite, orange crayon on wove paper; H x W: 14 × 21.5 cm (5 1/2 × 8 7/16 in.); Gift of Anonymous Donor; 1992-127-1

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18638845/ |title=Drawing, Abstract Cityscape |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=31 October 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>