Straphangers

Sybil Andrews

1929 · Color linocut on Japanese paper · Drawings and Prints

Andrews, like many Grosvenor School artists, set works in the Underground. She used some of the same colors as Cyril Power and depicted similar scenes of commuters and architectural details, but her works are more cheerful and express less ambivalence about the Underground and modernity broadly considered. Her compositions are minimal and sleek as she eliminated extraneous details that would detract from the pulsating rhythm of movement in the machine age. Her figures are also more anonymous, represented without facial features or, as in the case of Rush Hour, from the knee down. In Straphangers, a work an anonymous critic described as capturing "the very soul of modern London," sharp curves represent the torsos and arms of passengers packed onto a subway car as they hold straps for stability.

Artist

Sybil Andrews

Date

1929

Medium

Color linocut on Japanese paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Leslie and Johanna Garfield Gift, Lila Acheson Wallace, Charles and Jessie Price, and David T Schiff Gifts, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, Dolores Valvidia Hurlburt Bequest, Peco Foundation and Friends of Drawings and Prints Gifts, and funds from various donors, 2019