The City in Print

With the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and the transformation of the city, artists were drawn to these new visual landscapes. Artists found the city fascinating for its aesthetic and symbolic qualities, and prints commonly portrayed the city in a positive, heroic light. The resulting works serve as historical documentation of both the physical space and the artist’s relationship with a certain place and time. Each print here illustrates the development of the San Francisco Bay Area throughout the 20th-21st centuries using the unique perspectives of local artists.