Edition Size: 100
Price: $100
30.5 x 44 Inches
Photolithograph on Fine Art Paper
Most of the iconic buildings in downtown Detroit were built in the first half of the 20th century. Six of the ten buildings featured in this show were opened between 1926 and 1929! Few American cities could equal such output. Opened in 1913, the oldest structure in the show is the Michigan Central Depot, surely one of America's grandest railroad stations and one that should never see a wrecking ball. The Fisher and Guardian Buildings, both completed on the cusp of the Great Depression, are two of the country's best and most inventive examples of highrise buildings in the Art Deco style. Albert Kahn and Smith, Hinchman and Grylls (Wirt Rowland) designed these two sophisticated buildings, respectively, and these two firms deserve special mention for their world-class work (as well as many other fine buildings that did not qualify for this show because they were not high-rises). The other three buildings in the show were sprinkled through the second half of the 20th century and are excellent examples of Modern and Postmodern architecture. In total, the architecture of these buildings is an amazing and powerful statement what it means to be a great metropolis.
Esteban Chavez's Detroit's Top Ten is a unique collection of Detroit's most famous landmarks utilizing Esteban's internationally recognized style of photo imagery. For this series Chavez has created 10 oversized photolithography editions. For each piece he photographs buildings or architectural details, scans the negatives into the computer and generates the images into film positives. The film positives - which are the actual size of the lithographs - are then exposed to photographic lithographic plates and the plates are then inked by hand and rolled through a traditional hand cranked press.
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