Boulder Dam (Presa Boulder)

Helen Blumenschein, American, 1909 - 1989

c. 1934-1935

lithographic pencil on paper

Museum purchase with designated Western art funds from Ginger K. Renner

2011.21

© Phoenix Art Museum. All rights reserved. Photo by Ken Howie.

American and Western American

No

The daughter of Taos painters Ernest and Mary Blumenschein, Helen also became an artist, best known for her prints. The subject of her drawing is the Boulder Dam (later re-named Hoover Dam) was inspired by one of great government building projects of the New Deal. The largest privately funded construction project during the 1930s was Rockefeller Center in New York. Chicago Etcher Nathaniel Steinberg conveys the masculine muscular energy of erecting a skyscraper in Construction. Philip C. Curtis’ highly stylized Industrial conveys no information about a specific site.