Untitled

The Texan-turned-New Yorker Thurman Rotan was known for photocollages of skyscrapers made into dizzying black-and-white designs, which he called “photo-patterns.” This work reveals his ability to derive patterns even from more straightforward depictions of urban life, seen here in the way that two sunlit planks, tilted into dynamic white lines, cast equally lively shadows. Rotan liked unusual camera angles. Looking down upon the workers and keeping a close-cropped frame, he transformed the scene into a sort of abstract composition. Rotan was included by gallerist Julien Levy in the 1932 exhibition Photographs of New York by New York Photographers.