{ "data": { "id": 122716, "accession_number": "1942.896", "share_license_status": "CC0", "tombstone": "The Bell Telephone Building, Cleveland, Ohio, 1926\u201327. Edwin Kaufman (American, 1906\u20131939). Etching; platemark: 8.2 x 7.3 cm (3 1/4 x 2 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Robert Hays Gries, 1942.896", "current_location": null, "title": "The Bell Telephone Building, Cleveland, Ohio", "creation_date": "1926\u201327", "creation_date_earliest": 1926, "creation_date_latest": 1927, "artists_tags": [ "May Show", "male" ], "culture": [ "America, Ohio, Cleveland" ], "technique": "etching", "support_materials": [], "department": "Prints", "collection": "PR - Etching", "type": "Print", "measurements": "Platemark: 8.2 x 7.3 cm (3 1/4 x 2 7/8 in.)", "dimensions": { "platemark": { "height": 0.082, "height_inch": 3, "height_inch_fraction": 0.25, "width": 0.073, "width_inch": 2, "width_inch_fraction": 0.875 } }, "state_of_the_work": null, "edition_of_the_work": null, "copyright": null, "inscriptions": [ { "inscription": "Signed, in plate, at lower left: KAUFMAN; signed and inscribed, in graphite, at bottom right: Kaufman imp.", "inscription_translation": null, "inscription_remark": null, "sortorder": null } ], "exhibitions": { "current": [ { "id": 381573, "title": "The May Show: 9th Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen", "description": "The May Show: 9th Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-June 5, 1927).", "opening_date": "1927-04-27T04:00:00" } ], "legacy": [] }, "provenance": [ { "description": "Studio of the artist, Cleveland, OH, sold to Robert Hays Gries", "citations": [], "footnotes": null, "date": "1927", "sortorder": 1 }, { "description": "Robert Hays Gries, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art", "citations": [], "footnotes": null, "date": "1942", "sortorder": 2 }, { "description": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH", "citations": [], "footnotes": null, "date": "1942-", "sortorder": 3 } ], "find_spot": null, "related_works": [], "former_accession_numbers": [], "did_you_know": "Kaufman's entry card to the museum\u2019s 1927 May Show reveals that this work was finished before construction on the Bell Telephone Building was complete.", "early_education_description": null, "artlens_description": null, "description": "In this dramatic image, Edwin Kaufman captures a moment during the construction of the Bell Telephone Building in Cleveland. Begun in 1925 and completed in 1927, the building was the tallest in Cleveland until it was quickly surpassed by the Terminal Tower in 1928. During those years, the city was one of the country\u2019s largest and its industrial production provided ready resources for large architectural projects. The image may reflect ambivalence on Kaufman\u2019s part toward its subject: lines radiating from the top corners seem capable of representing either majesty or foreboding.", "external_resources": { "wikidata": [ "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79640407" ], "internet_archive": [] }, "citations": [ { "citation": "Edwin Kaufman Entry Card to 1927 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives", "page_number": "", "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMS01345" } ], "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1942.896", "images": { "annotation": null, "web": { "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1942.896/1942.896_web.jpg", "width": "789", "height": "893", "filesize": "633596", "filename": "1942.896_web.jpg" }, "print": { "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1942.896/1942.896_print.jpg", "width": "1945", "height": "2201", "filesize": "3906601", "filename": "1942.896_print.jpg" }, "full": { "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1942.896/1942.896_full.tif", "width": "1945", "height": "2201", "filesize": "12868268", "filename": "1942.896_full.tif" } }, "alternate_images": [], "creditline": "Gift of Robert Hays Gries", "image_credit": null, "sketchfab_id": null, "sketchfab_url": null, "gallery_donor_text": null, "athena_id": 122716, "creators": [ { "id": 15144, "description": "Edwin Kaufman (American, 1906\u20131939)", "extent": null, "qualifier": null, "role": "artist", "biography": "Cleveland-born printmaker and painter Edwin Kaufman was an active member of the Cleveland School during the 1930s. His formal art education began at the Cleveland School of Art, where he learned watercolor and portraiture from Henry Keller. Upon graduation in 1929, he studied with Hans Hoffman in Munich and Henry de Waroquier in Paris after winning the Agnes Gund European Traveling Scholarship. In 1930 he exhibited alongside master printmaker K\u00e1lm\u00e1n Kubinyi at the Council Education Alliance in Cleveland and later published a book of etchings with Kubinyi in 1932. During the early years of the Great Depression, Kaufman participated in the Cleveland Print Makers Club, taught tooling and portraiture at the Euclid Avenue Temple, and exhibited at the Cleveland Museum of Art\u2019s annual May Show from 1926 to 1937 with a first prize in watercolor and intaglio in 1935. In 1933, a solo exhibition of his prints and drawings was held at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, California. That year, Kaufman also became president of the short-lived International Print Guild in New York City. In 1934, he moved to New York, and by 1936 worked for the Works Progress Administration. His work spans portraiture, city scenes from Cleveland and New York, and New England landscapes. Kaufman\u2019s career was tragically cut short by a car accident that resulted from a bridge collapse in 1939.", "name_in_original_language": null, "birth_year": "1906", "death_year": "1939", "use_in_caption": true, "include_extent": false, "weight": 1 } ], "legal_status": "accessioned", "accession_date": "1942-12-02T00:00:00", "sortable_date": 1926, "date_added_to_oa": 20260701, "date_text": "1926\u201327", "collapse_artists": false, "on_loan": false, "recently_acquired": false, "record_type": "object", "conservation_statement": null, "has_conservation_images": false, "cover_accession_number": null, "is_nazi_era_provenance": false, "impression": null, "alternate_titles": [], "is_highlight": false, "updated_at": "2026-07-02 19:00:40.240000" } }