Joan Firestone & Jan Lourie, Spirit Passage, c. 2004 Fusion Print, 6/69
Joan Firestone (American, born 1930) collaborated with Janice “Jan” Lourie, an artist and pioneering computer scientist whose work at IBM included an early computer-aided textile-design system. Together they produced the Gotham Series, using digitally combined photographs of New York architecture to construct urban views that could not be recorded in a single exposure. Their “fusion prints” were exhibited at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in 2004, and the Brooklyn Museum holds their related large-scale work Transit Rigging, also dated 2004.
Spirit Passage, circa 2004, is a fusion print on paper by Joan Firestone and Jan Lourie, produced from digitally combined architectural photographs. Repeated views of scaffolding and glass façades overlap across the vertical composition, causing the rigging to pass through reflected building planes and form a narrow, shifting corridor. Dark charcoal and muted reddish-brown passages gather along the left side, while the lighter structures at right remain partly transparent. The work appears to come from their Gotham Series, described at the time as computer-generated composite views of New York architecture. Titled and numbered “Spirit Passage 6/69” in graphite at lower left and signed “Jan Lourie / Joan Firestone” at lower right. Sheet measures approximately 22.125 x 187; image meeasures approxmately 16.125 x 12. Condition is generally good overall, with light handling and two short strips of old hinging tape on the verso near the upper edge. Pencil inventory notation “NR-24” appears at the upper-left verso. Image presents well. Provenance of Martin and Enid Gleich.
Condition
Please review the photos for a complete understanding of condition.
Dimensions
22.125 x 18 in
Estimate
Reserve
Time, Location
Auction House
Joan Firestone (American, born 1930) collaborated with Janice “Jan” Lourie, an artist and pioneering computer scientist whose work at IBM included an early computer-aided textile-design system. Together they produced the Gotham Series, using digitally combined photographs of New York architecture to construct urban views that could not be recorded in a single exposure. Their “fusion prints” were exhibited at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in 2004, and the Brooklyn Museum holds their related large-scale work Transit Rigging, also dated 2004.
Spirit Passage, circa 2004, is a fusion print on paper by Joan Firestone and Jan Lourie, produced from digitally combined architectural photographs. Repeated views of scaffolding and glass façades overlap across the vertical composition, causing the rigging to pass through reflected building planes and form a narrow, shifting corridor. Dark charcoal and muted reddish-brown passages gather along the left side, while the lighter structures at right remain partly transparent. The work appears to come from their Gotham Series, described at the time as computer-generated composite views of New York architecture. Titled and numbered “Spirit Passage 6/69” in graphite at lower left and signed “Jan Lourie / Joan Firestone” at lower right. Sheet measures approximately 22.125 x 187; image meeasures approxmately 16.125 x 12. Condition is generally good overall, with light handling and two short strips of old hinging tape on the verso near the upper edge. Pencil inventory notation “NR-24” appears at the upper-left verso. Image presents well. Provenance of Martin and Enid Gleich.
Condition
Please review the photos for a complete understanding of condition.
Dimensions
22.125 x 18 in
Estimate
Reserve
Time, Location
Auction House
