Paul T. Frankl
American (Born Austria)
1886–1958

Skyscraper, ca. 1927
Maple, Bakelite

Purchase, Theodore R. Gamble Jr. Gift, in honor of his mother, Mrs. Theodore Robert Gamble, 1982 (1982.30ab)

By the 1920s, the skyscraper was a symbol of American modernity. Here, Frankl uses maple wood and Bakelite to suggest the jagged, upward-reaching outline of a New York skyscraper. By breaking with the constraints of the past, this towering architectural form expressed the excitement and optimism of a new era.

—The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City