City Light Box Study
1943
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 35.56 × 26.51 cm (14 × 10 7/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Kiyoko Lerner
Accession Number
2012.115.21
Art Historical Context
**City Light Box Study (1943) by Nathan captures the innovative spirit of mid-20th-century experimental photography. Created as a gelatin silver print—a classic black-and-white medium prized for its rich tonal gradations and sharp detail—this 14 × 10 7/16-inch image exemplifies Lerner's fascination with light, form, and urban abstraction. During World War II, when American cities grappled with blackouts and rationing, Lerner's work offered a poetic counterpoint, transforming everyday elements like illuminated signs into studies of luminosity and shadow. Lerner, a pioneering photographer assoc...
About the Artist
Nathan Lerner
Nathan Lerner (1913–1997), born in Chicago as the second of three sons to Ukrainian immigrants Louis and Ida Lerner, grew up in an artistic family—his older brother was a writer, his younger a flutist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, his mother later painted watercolors, and his father became a temple cantor. At age nine, he attended Saturday children's art classes at the Art Institute of Chicago und...