Art in Brief

MANHATTAN NEW YORK
Gerrit Engel, text by Jordan Mejias

Given that the 162 color photographs of buildings in Gerrit Engel's book "Manhattan New York" (Schirmer/Mosel, 344 pages) are arranged chronologically, I thought the first several would be located around the Battery. The second, "St. Paul's Chapel, 1766, " is, but the first is the "Morris-Jumel Mansion, 1765" in Harlem, and the third is the "Dyckman House, 1785" in Inwood, the northernmost neighborhood on the island. There are other surprises, mostly pleasant, in this accomplished book.

Engel came to New York in 1994 to study architecture, and when he was unable to find a book showing the city's architecture in the straight-ahead format he wanted, he decided to take the pictures he was looking for himself. His approach is strongly influenced by the New Objectivity, or Neue Sachlichkeit, that was thought to have ended with the fall of the Weimar Republic but is still very much with us, most notably in the photographs of Bernd and Hilla Becher. That is, his work is cool and analytic, uniform in format (all were taken on overcast days to avoid shadows that might obscure details of the subject buildings) and aims to let us see the structures as autonomous works of art.

Among the other surprises was that the "Bayard Building, 1899," in NoHo was designed by Louis Sullivan. His characteristic ornamentation is clearly visible under the cornice. And I was unaware that Edward Durell Stone was responsible for the handsome façade of "Radio City Music Hall, 1932," though one can see how it relates to the "Museum of Modern Art, 1939," which is also pictured. The modest "Rockerfeller Guest House, 1950" in Turtle Bay had escaped my notice, but the interplay of materials — wood door, variegated brick, steel and glass — makes for a more pleasing building than much of the high-rise frippery Philip Johnson was later to plant in Midtown.

The buildings in "Manhattan New York" are there because they interested Gerrit Engel, some as conspicuous as the "Empire State Building, 1931," some as obscure as "Sylvan Terrace, 1882." His catholic taste and technical competence complement each other nicely.