Book Description

This book reproduces artist and retired FDNY Captain Brenda Berkman's stone lithograph print series "Thirty-six Views of One World Trade Center." Berkman's idea for this print series arose as she did tours as a volunteer at the National September 11 Memorial on the former WTC site. Determined to make stone lithograph prints depicting the construction and views of the new One World Trade Center (1WTC), she studied prints other artists had done of cultural and architectural icons including Japanese artists Hiroshige and Hokusai, and French artist Henri Rivière. The prints "document" in chronological order the building of the new 1WTC -- incorporating all seasons, day and night, all boroughs and New Jersey, and a diversity of people. Including views of 1WTC from far away, up close, and even from inside, each image depicts the new 1WTC at various points in its construction and, as such, is a historical record of the rebuilding. Individual prints show other "iconic" structures (the Empire State building, Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty), aspects associated with New York City (water towers, pigeons, broken umbrellas lying on the street), and memorial sites. Creating images of iconic New York City cityscapes is challenging. "Iconic" is in the eye of the beholder - influenced by the culture, background and generation of both artist and audience. What we admire today can easily be forgotten or regarded as passé tomorrow. New York City has a constantly changing landscape/skyline. The cityscape has already changed from the time the prints were created. Berkman's lithograph series also pays homage to the first World Trade Center, reflecting its absence and encompassing the fact of its destruction in one day -- a day when the landscape of lower Manhattan was forever changed.The book includes two essays placing Berkman's prints in historical context by Jan Ramirez, Chief Curator at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum and Christina Spiker, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art and Art History at St. Olaf College.