New York City Hospital c. 1936

Curator: What a deceptively calm painting! The work, created around 1936 by Gilbert Sackerman, is titled "New York City Hospital." Sackerman rendered the scene in watercolor, it appears, en plein air. Editor: It feels so…pastoral, doesn’t it? The trees are embracing the building almost protectively, but they also frame and thus isolate the place. Hospitals are not places people visit for pleasure, that is clear, this looks like a sanatorium perhaps. Curator: Precisely. Watercolors are fascinating when documenting the architecture and lived spaces—materials usually relegated to leisurely, or amateur practices take on a different tenor when depicting something like the New York City Hospital, don’t you think? I can not avoid considering who are these drawings made for? Is this art being crafted with patients, is it work being requested? Is it the artist doing commission based on popularity of the scenery? Editor: Good point! There's a lightness to it, yet a sense of weight hangs in the details. I am sensing, like the shadows creeping across the cobblestone pathway which are quite a bit deeper than other details such as blue hydrangea in the center field...almost gothic. A subtle unease. Maybe it's the artist's choice to emphasize the built materials: the stark walls and slate shingles in soft focus. A choice, conscious or not, perhaps influenced by some memory that they might be exploring on-site? The eye gets lead towards the central doorway so naturally. Curator: Indeed, it feels like Sackerman is actively experimenting here, exploring the potential of watercolor for an unconventional subject matter. What do you take away? Editor: I’m seeing an interesting collision between form and intent. How even an unexpected and utilitarian medium, in a somewhat traditional plein-air approach, can really capture so much about a moment, about our emotional space surrounding a public hospital. What about you? Curator: Well, thinking about Sackerman I see more the intimate perspective given that these type of watercolor-centered landscapes typically belonged in private settings. Pondering how that intimacy takes on a new dimension here is very engaging. Thank you, for sharing this perspective.