Engine Room

Maker Howard Norton Cook (American, 1901 - 1980)

Collections

American Print Selections

ClassificationsPRINTS

Date1930

Mediumlithograph

Dimensions10 1/8 x 12 1/4 in. (25.7 x 31.1 cm.) sheet: 15 1/4 x 21 in. (38.7 x 53.3 cm.)

SignedSigned and dated ni lower right of recto in graphite: Howard Cook 1930

InscribedSigned and dated ni lower right of recto in graphite: Howard Cook 1930 Inscribed in lower left of recto in graphite: 75 [circled]

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of Hannah S. Kully

Label TextEngine Room depicts the power plant of a large steamship. In 1925 Cook spent several months as the navigator of a cargo steamer that sailed from New York to San Francisco via the Panama Canal, providing him ample opportunity to observe the inner workings of a ship. Cook severely cropped the composition and concentrated on the overall shapes of objects rather than details so that the viewer experiences the machinery as an abstract design. The massive engine dwarfs a man in the center of the composition, presenting a somewhat disconcerting impression of a person overwhelmed by machines.

Status

Not on view

Object number2011.3.36