Torn Signs

Early in his career, Ralston Crawford (1906 1978) earned acclaimed for his Precisionist paintings of architectural subjects associated with a forward-looking, industrialised America, most famously his Overseas Highway of 1939. But Crawford was a multifaceted artist with an adventurous spirit and a curiosity for the world beyond the United States, one whose work in various media and painting styles continued to evolve throughout his life, with his later, more abstract painting having a remarkable emotional dimension.
This new book, published to accompany an exhibition at the Vilcek Foundation in New York focuses on two series of works
‘Torn Signs’ and ‘Semana Santa’
that Crawford developed mostly over the course of the last 20 or so years of his life (although his first ‘Torn Signs’ photographs date from the late 1930s, thus making this Crawford’s most enduring theme or motif). SELLING POINTS: . Offers new perspectives on the American artist Ralston Crawford, focusing on two related series of works from his later life . With contributions from experts on American modernism and Crawford scholars, including his son John . Includes reproductions of pages from Crawford’s sketchbooks, providing insight into his remarkable visual memory and his thoughts on drawing, writing and other subjects 135 illustrations