Friday, November 13, 2020 – The Artist Who Designed Subway Stations

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13,  2020

The

209th  Edition

From Our Archives

JOSEPH SQUIRE VICKERS

ARTIST

A YOUNG READER TELLS US OF HIS IMPRESSION OF VIEWING A VICKER’S PAINTING AT THE VASSER ART MUSEUM.

Frances Lehman Loeb Art Gallery, Vassar College, Gift of the Shepherd Gallery Associates, New York and purchase, Lydia Evans Tunnard, class of 1936, Fund 1993.4

MORE ABOUT SQUIRE J. VICKERS

Robin Lynn and Nathan Steckman

On November 9th, 2020, I interviewed my 10-year old grandson Nathan about an oil painting by Squire J. Vickers (1872-1947) which he said was his favorite work at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Gallery at Vassar College, near his home.

I wanted to know why he liked this particular oil painting and learn about the artist who painted it. Little did I know that Vickers was not only a painter, but the chief architect of the NYC subway system and designed its stations and signs while working there for a very long time between between 1906 and 1942. Vickers decisions and choices for signage are still visible today as we ride the rails.

I told Nathan about what I had learned about Vickers from a New York Times article, Underground Renaissance Man: Watch the Aesthetic Walls, Please, August 3, 2007:

“As the architect of perhaps three quarters of the subway system, Vickers also lived what he preached, taking three forms of public transportation every day from his home in Grand View-on-Hudson in Rockland County to his office in Manhattan: a train to a ferry to a subway. His house and painting studio overlooking the Hudson, an Arts and Crafts cottage that he designed, was one of his life’s other great passions. He called the estate Over Joy, and he painted there prodigiously, often producing canvases of fantastical, almost science-fiction-like city scenes with geometric motifs that echoed the subway’s designs.

” Robin: What’s the title of the picture?

Nathan: “Fantasy Castle with Man on Zebra.”

Robin : What attracted you to it?

Nathan: The castle is tall with rounded shapes and bunches of different colors.

Robin: Do you think Vickers was thinking of subways while painting?

Nathan: Yes, I think so because the painting has a subway look. Once I saw the road underneath it, I thought it could be a railroad track. And the zebras could be the trains. I think the station could be under the castle. You could hop on a zebra and ride away.

Robin: And the sky?

Nathan It looks like there are bridges in the background. They’re white. The sky has many colors.

Robin: But it’s a fantasy scene, right? What did you dress up as at Halloween?

Nathan: A ranger from Ranger’s Apprentice.

Robin: Is that a fantasy figure?

Nathan: Yes

Robin: What is a fantasy?

Nathan: A fantasy can be make-believe. Here, it’s something that the painter thought of by himself and is not real. Although some things can be real. The castle could be real. But probably not. The road could be real.

Robin Could the Wizard of Oz be on that road?

Nathan: Yes, that could be perfect. Could be like the emerald city.

Robin: Do you know what year Vickers painted the picture?

Nathan: No.

Robin: It was 1923. Vickers could have been thinking about the Wizard of Oz (published in 1900).

I showed Nathan a picture of the smooth, no-nonsense Northern Blvd. sign made out of colored mosaics surrounded by a brown band which we still see today on the IND line, and is its original sign from 1933 when the station opened. I asked him to compare the painting and the subway sign.

Nathan: They both have a mosaic quality to them. The sky (in the painting) looks like oil on a rough surface. If we could feel the tiles, they might feel the same as the rough paper of the painting. The painting could be a real scene because there’s a city sky, but the buildings are green. The sun is a color you don’t normally see in a regular sun. The buildings are different colors – blue, orange, yellow.

Robin: So is the scene real or a fantasy?

Nathan: A fantasy.

Robin: What about the Northern Blvd. sign?

Nathan: It’s real. It would be in a subway station.

Robin: Can you make up an alternative name for the painting?

Nathan: “Train Tracks under a Blue Castle with Men on Zebras.” The zebras can be the railroad cars. Yes, Vickers could have been thinking of a subway system; probably that’s where the idea for the road came from.

Robin: What do you think is on the other side of the castle?

Nathan: A train ready to go to a bridge or another fantasy castle where there are men on elephants. Elephants are for Republicans. Donkeys for Democrats. The zebras could be democracy.

Robin: Do you think this work is abstract?

Nathan: Yes.

Robin: Do you think the sign is abstract or is it precise?

Nathan: Precise.

Robin: Don’t you think it’s interesting that during his weekday job, he’s precise, and when he paints he’s abstract.

Robin: What are some words you’d use to describe how the work makes you feel?

Nathan: It makes me feel entertained. There are different colors everywhere. My eyes began darting back and forth. I would jump on the zebra.

Robin: Do you want a pen name if your interview is published? You know, that’s a name that’s not yours but you use when you’re being published.

Nathan: I guess. You could call me Squire J. Vickers, Jr.

PAINTINGS BY JOSEPH SQUIRE VICKERS

SQUIRE J. VICKERS American (1872–1947)

CITYSCAPE WITH SUN   1927

Oil on burlap Museum purchase Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg

2011.3.2

Vickers studied architecture at Cornell University and was Chief Architect for the New York Subway System (1906–1942). He was also a painter. After the 1913 Armory Show, which introduced European modernism to America, Vickers was inspired to move away from naturalistic representation towards abstraction.  As seen here, he began to use the simplified forms of Cubism and the expressive, non-naturalistic color of the Fauvists to capture the energy of New York City. During the 1920s, many artists sought to represent the rapidly-changing city, which was developing in construction, communications technology, and industry. Playing an instrumental role in the city’s mass transportation system, Vickers had an intimate knowledge of urban development, and was keen to express it in his paintings.

SQUIRE J. VICKERS  American (1872–1947)

COTTAGE WITH TUNNEL   Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg

c. 1920  Oil on burlap

Museum purchase

2011.3.1

Vicker’s inspiration, aside from European Modernism, was the Arts & Crafts Movement, which also informed the subway’s architectural embellishments that he was responsible for: their flattened designs often incorporated tiles by such makers as Grueby and Rookwood. Further, the patterned roof tiles of his Arts & Crafts home recall those found in his fantasy landscapes like this.

New York Skyline at William J. Jenack Estate Appraisers & Auctioneers in 2016

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CANAL STREET STATION AND TIMES SQUARE STATION MOSAICS

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Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter  and Deborah Dorff
Roosevelt Island Historical Society
MATERIALS USED FROM:

The story of Squire Vickers, the man behind the distinctive look of the New York City subway

By KERI LAKINGER
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |(C)
JUN 30, 2016 AT 8:15 AM

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