Ralston Crawford
de Rick Kinsel
American art underwent a transformation in the period 1940-55, and nowhere is that change better exemplified than in the work of Ralston Crawford (1906-1978). Crawford's painting during the 1930s had largely been a series of dazzling Precisionist works that reflected advances in industry and engineering. After the United States entered World War II, Crawford served in the Weather Division of the Army Air Forces. He created pictorial representations of weather patterns for pilots, and was exposed to countless photographs of air crashes. He continued working as an artist throughout the conflict, receiving a commission to paint the Curtiss-Wright aircraft plant in Buffalo, New York, and, in 1946, an assignment from Fortune magazine to record one of the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. These experiences had a profound impact on Crawford, and marked a major turning point in his life and art. This exciting new book presents a remarkable selection of Crawford's paintings, drawings, photographs and prints from this time. Accompanying the artworks are five perceptive essays that consider Crawford's war years in the context of developments in both aviation and American art; his aerial views; his work for Fortune; his use of photography and lithography; and American and European paintings of aircraft as a means by which to explore how aviation redefined our understanding of air, space and war.00Exhibition: Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, USA (opening February 2021).
