Painting the Town -- Museum of the City of New York

The buildings in this painting, seen from a distance, typify many New York City views. Although part of Craig McPherson's interest appears to be the anonymous-looking buildings, he has described how they assume personalities that change with the time of day or the season. This is one of a series of paintings McPherson made that record the panorama from his first New York studio on West 168th Street.

Autumn, a view toward the south, captures the golden light of late afternoon as it raises the texture of the bricks and asphalt and makes the rooftops appear as a series of abstract constructivist structures, thus converting the ordinary into the aesthetic. The dominant sky and low horizon recall the countryside in McPherson's native Kansas.

McPherson holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Kansas and currently lives and works in New York City. He has curated exhibitions in the Midwest and served as director of the Kansas Cultural Arts Commission Mobile Gallery, sponsored by the Wichita Art Museum, and as manager of the Michigan Artrain, a project of the Michigan Council of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. After his arrival in New York City in 1971, McPherson was commissioned by the American Express Company to do two very large cycles -Great Harbors of the World, ten paintings depicting six of the world's major harbor cities, and Twilight: The Waterways and Bridges of Manhattan, four views of twilit Manhattan -for their corporate headquarters in the World Financial Center.


Autumn 1980 Craig McPherson (b. 1948) Oil on canvas, 48 X 54 Signed lower right: mcpherson 1980 Gift of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the Hassam and Speicher Purchase Fund, 83.4
The buildings in this painting, seen from a distance, typify many New York City views. Although part of Craig McPherson's interest appears to be the anonymous-looking buildings, he has described how they assume personalities that change with the time of day or the season. This is one of a series of paintings McPherson made that record the panorama from his first New York studio on West 168th Street. Autumn, a view toward the south, captures the golden light of late afternoon as it raises the texture of the bricks and asphalt and makes the rooftops appear as a series of abstract constructivist structures, thus converting the ordinary into the aesthetic. The dominant sky and low horizon recall the countryside in McPherson's native Kansas. McPherson holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Kansas and currently lives and works in New York City. He has curated exhibitions in the Midwest and served as director of the Kansas Cultural Arts Commission Mobile Gallery, sponsored by the Wichita Art Museum, and as manager of the Michigan Artrain, a project of the Michigan Council of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. After his arrival in New York City in 1971, McPherson was commissioned by the American Express Company to do two very large cycles -Great Harbors of the World, ten paintings depicting six of the world's major harbor cities, and Twilight: The Waterways and Bridges of Manhattan, four views of twilit Manhattan -for their corporate headquarters in the World Financial Center.