Print of the Day!! Mon, Sept 11, 2023 by Gerald K. Geerlings (1897-1998): "Siren on the Sea", hand colored lithograph, 1983, $750.00.

Print of the Day!! Monday, September 11, 2023 is by American printmaker Gerald K. Geerlings (1897-1998). 22 years later - A day for remembering and moving forward. ?

"Siren on the Sea - Drama at Noon"; lithograph with hand applied pastel, 1983. This impression is pencil signed, dated, and titled by the artist in the lower margin. This image was printed in a variant edition of 40 impressions by the artist and Master Printer Steven Miller at George C. Miller and Son, Inc, New York on a sheet of white wove paper that measures 12 x 18". A reference for this image is Czestochowski/Cedar Rapids 43. Geerlings hand-colored each impression and issued them as a series of 10 "moods" for which the black and white lithograph served as a guide. Each impression had color variations. Our inventory number for this impression is 12854.

This hand-colored lithograph by Gerald K. Geerlings is available from the gallery for $750.00.

Geerlings commented about this "Siren on the Sea" series: "The view of lower Manhattan from the sea has for 200 years or more delighted, allured and enchanted immigrants, foreign visitors, returning citizens from abroad and homecoming servicemen and women. The skyline has never been static. It varies from year to year, from sunrise to midnight, from rain to cloudless skies. Of all the great cities of the world situated on the seas, it is unique, without equal in its moods, its variations, its significance to each individual. Observed from the Staten Island Ferry the interplay of effects from moment to moment as it varies in color, in form, in its relation to the sea, and in its impression it makes on the viewer."

Geerlings did this lithograph of New York, with the Twin Towers, in 1983. He then hand-colored each impression with pastel to reflect different times of day, weather conditions, etc. 40 unique images, monoprints, that we were not allowed to show after 9/11, 2001. Time has passed and hopefully, once again, we can reflect on this image for what it really is, an artwork, starring Manhattan and featuring its distinctive and changing skyline and causing some of us to reflect for a moment about life beneath the surface landscape of our everyday lives.

Gerald Geerlings was a printmaker, architect, and author born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1897. After serving in WWI in 1917-18 he entered the School of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, earning an M.A. Geerlings went to work for the architectural firm of York & Sawyer in N.Y., along with the etcher/architect Louis C. Rosenberg.

After establishing his own architectural practice he began his printmaking, first a lithograph with George Miller in 1926 and then studying etching at the Royal College of Art in London in 1932. He was a widely published author on architecture throughout the rest of his life. His printmaking was limited to two periods, 1926-33 and again after 1975.

During WWII Geerlings did pioneering work with the U.S. Air Corps on aerial perspective drawings and maps, developing the Target Identification Unit for the Air Force. After the war he continued as a consultant to the SAC and returned to his architecture as well as doing a series of lithographs into the 1980's. One series, Siren on the Sea features the featuring the lower New York skyline and the World Trade Center twin towers, each lithograph colored uniquely with pastel to reflect different times of day.

Gerald Geerlings died on January 25, 1998 in New Canaan, Connecticut at age 101.

To purchase this work, see other prints, or read a biography for Gerald K. Geerlings use this link to our website: https://www.annexgalleries.com/inventory/artist/784/Geerlings/Gerald

Use this link to view our complete inventory on our website: https://www.annexgalleries.com/inventory?q=