Elevated Station

Helen Gerardia, Elevated Station, ca. 1952, lithograph, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Samuel Sumner Goldberg, 1977.81.5
Copied Helen Gerardia, Elevated Station, ca. 1952, lithograph, 10 3⁄4 × 15 3⁄4 in. (27.3 × 40.0 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Samuel Sumner Goldberg, 1977.81.5

Artwork Details

Title
Elevated Station
Artist
Date
ca. 1952
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
10 3⁄4 × 15 3⁄4 in. (27.3 × 40.0 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Samuel Sumner Goldberg
Mediums Description
lithograph
Classifications
Subjects
  • Abstract
Object Number
1977.81.5
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1977.81.5

Artwork Description

After immigrating to the United States from Russia as a child, Helen Gerardia worked as an elementary school art teacher before developing a dynamic career as a painter and printmaker. Classes at the Art Students League in New York with leading abstract painter Hans Hofmann led her to a distinctive style based in cubism. In Elevated Station, kaleidoscope-like fragments shuffle and distort railroad ties, stairs, lights, and other components of New York's above-ground "El" trains. Gerardia eventually opened her own studio to teach painting, etching, and lithography, then slowed her art-making in the 1970s to devote herself to leadership roles within the National Association of Women Artists and other organizations.