Stefan Hirsch (1899-1964)

Born in Germany to American parents, Stefan Hirsch was a pioneering American Modernist who enjoyed great success working in New York in the early 20th century. Meticulously rendered with bold colors, Excavation is a quintessential example of the artist’s acclaimed Precisionist aesthetic and a celebration of an ever-changing New York City.

According to Glen Umberger of The New York Landmark Conservancy, Excavation likely depicts an area in Turtle Bay near the former Church of St. John the Evangelist at 1st Avenue and East 55th Street, where photographic evidence from 1927 reveals three separate excavation sites. In the lower right quadrant, the green train visible behind the excavation site is most likely the former IRT Second Avenue Elevated train, which ran cars green in color and had a nearby stop at 57th street.

Regarding the present work, Teresa A. Carbone writes, “In Excavation, Hirsch, who worked slowly and deliberately, created a composition in which the definitive angles of the blue steel girders stand, sharply prominent, against the backdrop of brick and brownstone. The construction truck and the figures of two workers in the foreground appear dwarfed and toylike, as if they are spectators to the process occurring mysteriously before them.” (“Silent Pictures: Encounters with a Remade World,” Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2011, p. 158)