These days, the term 'crowd' is often associated with funding projects or sourcing services from the masses surfing the web. But long before Kickstarter or Indiegogo were even conceivable, large gatherings of people have filled our urban spaces to attend public performances, participate in revolutionary movements or simply and randomly swarm together like bees around a hive.
Of course, crowds have also served to inspire artwork – a concept known all too well by James Glisson, the curator of 'A World of Strangers: Crowds in American Art', opening 17 October at the Huntington Art Gallery in San Marino, California. The show, which will run until 4 April 2016, highlights a collection of prints donated to the museum by Hannah Kully and which focuses on American printmakers from the First World War to the mid-20th century.
Though artists have represented people as abstract patterns, in this exhibition, 'they're pictures of people who are recognised as people in scenes from everyday life', says Glisson.
Consider, for example, Walker Evans' Yankee Stadium with Capacity Crowd and Billboard. The 1946 Gelatin silver print, with its prominent corporate logos, appears to be critiquing the advertising industry. 'Evans' photograph surely says something profound, but we're left wondering what that might be,' says Glisson. Not so with Weegee's The First Murder, another print from c. 1950, depicting a group of people with facial expressions ranging from glee to disgust, craning to view a dead body.
The genesis of the exhibit began in 2010 when Glisson was working on his dissertation about how white, middle class artists depicted New York City. Sitting in the New York Public Library for ten hours a day, Glisson spent weeks 'like a human Google', combing through thousands of pages of illustrated magazines. 'I noticed that in a pretty distinct moment, somewhere between 1890 and 1895, these images of people went from being individuated to being nothing but patterns.'
Alas, the show ended up following a different path, steeped in realism. 'Yet,' says Glisson, 'these artists, consciously or unconsciously, seek out patterns as a way to tame and control the overwhelming experience of being in a crowd. Being packed in with others is a hyper-sensory and anxiety producing experience. Patterning offers a way to organise those sensations into something graspable and cognisable, as opposed to frenetic and excessive.'
Crowds have also served to inspire artwork – a concept known all too well by James Glisson, the curator of 'A World of Strangers: Crowds in American Art' at the Huntington Art Gallery in San Marino, California. Pictured: Benediction in Georgia, by ,1916
The show highlights a collection of prints donated to the museum by Hannah Kully. Pictured: Preliminaries to the Big Bout, by George Wesley Bellows, 1916
The show focuses on American printmakers from the First World War to the mid-20th century. Pictured: Billy Sunday, by George Wesley Bellows, 1923
The genesis of the exhibit began in 2010 when Glisson was working on his dissertation about how white, middle class artists depicted New York City. Pictured: The First Murder, by Weegee, c. 1950. Los Angeles and International Center of Photography
Sitting in the New York Public Library for ten hours a day, Glisson spent weeks 'like a human Google', combing through thousands of pages of illustrated magazines. Pictured: Bridgeport Parade: Marching Band and Crowd, by Walker Evans, 1941. , Los Angeles
'I noticed that in a pretty distinct moment, somewhere between 1890 and 1895, these images of people went from being individuated to being nothing but patterns,' says Glissen. Pictured: Crowded Beach, by Torkel Korling, 1929.
Manhattan Vista, by Armin Landeck, 1934
Shadow Boxers, by John JA Murphy, 1925
The People Work – Evening, by Benton Murdoch Spruance, 1937.
Traffic Control, by Benton Murdoch Spruance, 1936.
East First Street (St James Park), by Ken Gonzales-Day, 2006.
INFORMATION
’A World of Strangers: Crowds in American Art’ opens on 17 October and runs until 4 April 2016
ADDRESS
Huntington Art Gallery
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
-
Pharrell Williams’ latest Louis Vuitton show celebrates a ‘friendship for life’ with streetwear legend NigoLouis Vuitton men’s creative director Pharrell Williams looked towards his long friendship with BAPE founder Nigo to create a collaborative A/W 2025 menswear collection shown in Paris this evening (21 January 2025)
-
Think small, think electric, as Hyundai attempts to revolutionise the classic Indian three-wheelerHyundai’s Micro Mobility strategy, in collaboration with Indian manufacturer TVS, has revealed two conceptual takes on small electric urban transport in a bid to cut the country’s crushing pollution issue
-
‘Just beneath the surface there’s another world’: How David Lynch used hair and make-up to create his singular universeFrom Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive to Twin Peaks, David Lynch used hair and make-up in his films as a narrative device, writes Laura Havlin
-
Sundance Film Festival 2025: The films we can't wait to watchSundance Film Festival, which runs 23 January - 2 February, has long been considered a hub of cinematic innovation. These are the ones to watch from this year’s premieres
-
What is RedNote? Inside the social media app drawing American users ahead of the US TikTok banDownloads of the Chinese-owned platform have spiked as US users look for an alternative to TikTok, which faces a ban on national security grounds. What is Rednote, and what are the implications of its ascent?
-
Architecture and the new world: The Brutalist reframes the American dreamBrady Corbet’s third feature film, The Brutalist, demonstrates how violence is a building block for ideology
-
‘Gas Tank City’, a new monograph by Andrew Holmes, is a photorealist eye on the American West‘Gas Tank City’ chronicles the artist’s journey across truck-stop America, creating meticulous drawings of fleeting moments
-
Intimacy, violence and the uncanny: Joanna Piotrowska in PhiladelphiaArtist and photographer Joanna Piotrowska stages surreal scenes at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania
-
First look: Sphere’s new exterior artwork draws on a need for human connectionWallpaper* talks to Tom Hingston about his latest large-scale project – designing for the Exosphere
-
Marc Hom reframes traditional portraiture in Cooperstown, NY‘Marc Hom: Re-Framed’ has taken over the grounds of the Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, planting Samuel L Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow and more ‘personalities of the world’ into the landscape
-
Alexander May, founder of LA studio Sized, on the joys of creative polymathyCreative director Alexander May tells us of the multidisciplinary approach that drives his LA studio Sized and its offspring, a 5,000 sq ft event space and an exhibition series
