Millard Sheets
Angel's Flight1931

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Labor and Leisure in the American Metropolis

Artist or Maker: Millard Sheets
United States, California, Claremont, 1907-1989
Title: Angel's Flight
Place Made: United States
Date Made: 1931
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Canvas: 50 1/4 × 40 in. (127.64 × 101.6 cm) Framed: 56 3/4 × 46 3/4 × 3 in. (144.15 × 118.75 × 7.62 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. L. M. Maitland
Accession Number: 32.17
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: American Art
Curatorial Notes: In 1901 an electric cable-car railway known as Angels Flight was constructed in Los Angeles to transport people up the steep hill to an observation tower. Regionalist artist Millard Sheets, who worked in the city, depicted the working-class neighborhood in which Angels Flight was placed through bright colors, an emphasis on diagonals in the composition, and a vertiginous perspective. Sheets purposefully omitted the cable car, instead illustrating residents on an arduous climb up a winding staircase.
Selected Bibliography: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Transformation: the LACMA Campaign. Los Angeles: Museum Associates, 2008.