102 http://www.AmericanArtCollector.com
F
rederick Brosen explains, “A painting is not just a
painting but a window into a lifetime of looking,
learning, feeling and developing.”
He began drawing when he was a boy growing up
in New York City, even then, fascinated by the archi-
tecture of the city and its little pockets of history and
intimate neighborhoods. When he was 18, he visited
Amsterdam and the Rijksmuseum where he discovered
Dutch 17th-century painters. “They invented secular
cityscape painting,” he notes. “Their paintings are
inclusive and accessible.”
Brosen rides his bicycle around early morning New
York scouting possible views and “quiet moments” for
his watercolor paintings. He does sketches and takes
photographs from various angles, then returns to his
studio. He begins each work with a graphite drawing
over which he layers transparent watercolor.
Frederick Brosen: Recent Watercolor Paintings
continues at Hirschl & Adler Modern in New York
through March 6. It includes 12 watercolors of various
parts of Manhattan as well as Coney Island.
The quiet moments of his watercolors invite the
viewer to stop and take them in. He includes “a fore-
ground that enables viewers to place themselves inthe painting.”
West 74th Street is a view from the bustle of Columbus
Avenue to the bucolic Central Park, with one of the
towers of The San Remo luxury condominium jutting
into the sky, emphasized by the 35-by-23½-inch format.
Photorealistic from a distance, the painting reveals its
drawing base and brushstrokes when seen up close.
Farther downtown, Brosen focuses more intimately
on 17 Stuyvesant Street, an apartment building in
the East Village built in 1920. The tree-lined street
is one of the oldest in the city. Brosen features the
time battered façade of the building that now abuts
Alumni Hall of New York University, which houses
450 students. The view from the apartment building’s
stoop includes the glossy towers of contemporary
New York.
Brosen invites the viewer to contemplate who may
have lived in the building over the past 100 years.
Although we know that Tiger Woods, Rita Hayworth
and Mary Tyler Moore lived in The San Remo, the
residents of 17 Stuyvesant Street remain a mystery.Hirschl & Adler Modern The Fuller Building • 41 E. 57th Street •
New York, NY 10022 • (212) 535-8810 • http://www.hirschlandadler.comFREDERICK BROSENCity Moments
UPCOMING SHOW PREVIEW / HIRSCHL & ADLER MODERN
Through 3/6 New York, NY1 2 31
17 Stuyvesant Street,
watercolor over graphite
on paper, 34¼ x 23"
2
Jones Walk, Coney Island,
watercolor over graphite
on paper, 19 x 12½"
3
West 10th Street, Coney
Island, watercolor over
graphite on paper,
34¾ x 25"
4
West 74th Street,
watercolor over graphite
on paper, 35 x 23½"
Images courtesy the
artist and Hirschl & Adler
Modern, New York.