Studies for "Steeplechasing" and "Whence & Whither?"

Sybil Andrews|Cyril E. Power

ca. 1930 · Ink and pastel on tracing paper · Drawings and Prints

Beginning in 1928, Power made several drawings of escalators at the Tottenham Court Road station that relate to his work Whence & Whither?. Many convey a sense of anxiety generated by the subterranean world, with its long, winding tunnels and automated stairs; an inscription on one drawing reads: "THE ROBOTTOMLESS PIT, HOMO MECHANIENS." Here, however, leaping above Power’s spiky escalators and pointed Gothic arches are several gravity-defying horses in brown ink. Andrews drew the racing horses, which are associated with those in her linocut Steeplechasing. Their graceful forms provide an element of levity to the more somber tone of Power’s darker, heavier drawing.

Artist

Sybil Andrews|Cyril E. Power

Date

ca. 1930

Medium

Ink and pastel on tracing 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