Subway Station 1936

Louis Lozowick made this lithograph called ‘Subway Station’ in the United States, sometime in the 1930s or 40s. It's an image that seems to capture the mood of the interwar years. The print presents us with a view of a subway entrance, framed by heavy, angular girders. Lozowick’s viewpoint gives us a sense of looking up from below, perhaps implying the awesome scale of this new urban environment and infrastructure. Note the geometric shapes and patterns in the girders and buildings and the repetitive movements of the anonymous figures. These patterns create a sense of dynamism, but also of dehumanization. The style resembles other Precisionist works of the period that explored urban and industrial themes, such as Charles Sheeler’s factories, which were often commissioned by the factory owners themselves. To understand Lozowick's vision, we might want to explore publications like the New Masses, and consider how the image aligns or clashes with contemporary views on industrial progress. Only by looking at these sorts of sources can we really understand what it meant to make a picture like this at that time.