New York
Ernst Haas
American, born Austria. 1921–1986
c. 1957
A dye‑transfer color photograph in which Ernst Haas deliberately blurs and stretches signs and skyscrapers to convey the fleeting, kinetic impression of New York.
At first glance the image reads as vertical ribbons of saturated blues, golds, and reds—billboards and facades pulled into luminous streaks so that the city feels like a rushing abstraction.
By treating color and motion as expressive tools rather than documentary facts, Haas helped legitimize color photography as fine art and opened a path from photojournalism to lyrical, painterly abstraction in the 1950s.
Medium
Dye transfer print
Dimensions
13 7/16 × 9 1/2" (34.1 × 24.1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Leo Pavelle
Accession
423.1959
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
