In the foreground, a dense field of deconstructed shapes evokes urban buildings, while thin calligraphic lines suggest a bridge. Across the river, these same thin lines and rust-colored geometric forms create a visual echo of the emerging New York City skyline. The low-hanging blood moon, which occurs during a lunar eclipse, is reminiscent of the striking black suns in Manhattan Marin painted in the late 1920s and early 1930s during his iconic New York period. Full Moon Over the City, No. 1 also recalls the vivid red moon and gesturally rendered river in
Claude Monet's celebrated Impression, soleil levant (1872; Musée Marmottan Monet), the namesake of the Impressionist movement.
Full Moon Over the City, No. 1 reveals Marin's important position in the evolution of modernism as both rooted in the approach of one of the earliest and most lauded modern masters and also as a distinct synthesis of the post-war moment in New York. |