Luis Quintanilla Lithograph: "Cafeteria near New York University"

Notes

The proposed but never published book "Life in Manhattan" was intended to be Quintanilla's "poetic/artistic commentary on the myriad scenes" he encountered as he first experienced New York. The exiled artist arrived in the United States from facist Spain as the Spanish Civil War was ending and was fascinated by his new city, so different from Madrid and anything he had known in Europe (Quintanilla, Paul. Art and World of Luis Quintanilla).

As a precursor to this set of visual impressions of Manhattan, "the artist created at least 140 small sketches on scraps of paper," hasty studies performed as he wandered about the city. (To view a sampling of these sketches from Paul Quintanilla's website "The Art and World of Luis Quintanilla," please click here.) The only images actually intended for inclusion in the never published book are eleven lithographs, Cafeteria near New York University being one of them. To view thumbnails of all eleven lithographs, click here.

*Title and other annotations: At least one impression of each of the "Life in Manhattan" lithographs is titled in pencil (hand-printed), l.l. or l.c. (here lower left), just below the image. (See immediately below.) Although it is uncertain if these titles are in the artist's hand, they were undoubtedly known to him and are hence accepted as the titles of the lithographs for this catalogue raisonné.

**Date: The c.1940 dating for Quintanilla's "Life in Manhattan" lithographs is currently based on the date, 1940, inscribed on the Museum of Modern Art's impression of the lithograph, Museum of Modern Art, a print from this series. No other observed impressions from the series are dated, but as they were all created for the same project, the date of one can likely be attributed to the others.

***Medium: MoMA's catalogue entry for its impression of the Museum of Modern Art from this series says, "Lithograph printed from two zinc plates." Given the similarity of technique found in all of the "Life in Manhattan" series lithographs, it is likely they were all made in a similar fashion.

****Edition: Very little is known regarding an edition number for any of the lithographs from the "Life in Manhattan" series. One or two impressions of each image exist in the estate of the artist, while only a few impressions of lithographs from the series have been located outside of the estate.

*****Signature: Signed impressions from "Life in Manhattan" have rarely been observed; however, MoMA's impression of Museum of Modern Art as well as one other impression of that print bear a pencil signature. So do at least two impressions of Rockefeller Center and one of Washington Square.

Setting: The New York University campus in Manhattan is located in Greenwich Village, largely surrounding Washington Square, a very short distance from west Eighth street where Quintanilla lived from 1943 until he left the United States in 1958. Even earlier, however, he became familiar with the Village, exploring it on his own or with various artists and writers he met shortly after first arriving in the United States in January, 1938. He wrote in his journal:

"'At the end of January [1938] with snow and floes of ice drifting in the Hudson, I saw for the first time the misty silhouette of the skyscrapers of Manhattan. Ruth Allen [Jay Allen's wife] and Elliot Paul took me from the boat to Washington Square, where the Allens resided, and I was installed as a lodger.'" (translated from Quintanilla's journal by Paul Quintanilla and appearing in Paul Quintanilla, Waiting at the Shore, Vol. 1, 199.)