Adolf Dehn's Manhattan: Bookstore Signing with Dr. Philip Eliasoph, Dec. 7 | Press Releases

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (December 4, 2017)—Fairfield’s fifth annual Shop and Stroll festivities, on Thursday, December 7, will feature an author book signing of the recently released Adolf Dehn: Midcentury Manhattan by Philip Eliasoph, PhD, hosted by the Downtown University Bookstore, beginning at 6pm .

"For New Yorkers and visitors alike, there are few images more deeply enshrined in their collective well of memories than the glowing wonderland of Central Park and upper Fifth Avenue during the Christmas holidays," he writes. Lavishly illustrated with color plates, including works like Christmas in Central Park, Dr. Eliasoph explains how the image "operates within our psychic memory like a Currier & Ives snow scene of yesteryear. Generations wistfully recall visiting the toy land of FAO Schwarz, experiencing Fifth Avenue's creatively decorated shop windows, watching ice skaters beneath a brilliantly lit tree at Rockefeller Center, or strolling past the Plaza Hotel to grab a carriage ride through the park. Dehn's painting defines Manhattan at Christmastime; he captures a universality of lifelong memories converging within our mind's eye."

Adolf Dehn: Midcentury Manhattan celebrates the life and work of multimedia painter and master lithographer, Adolf Dehn, (1895-1968) who Dr. Eliasoph describes as “among the most prominent and critically recognized artists on the American scene during the interwar years and extending nearly into the early 1950s.” Dehn’s work is in the permanent collections of more than eighty museums.

The book explores Dehn’s prolific artistic career and legacy, and his signature mid-century Manhattan imagery—paintings, prints and drawings—including the vibrant watercolor collection of Central Park through the seasons and the artist’s series of panoramic city skylines depicted in The Battery , 1953, Lower Manhattan , 1956-57, and Manhattan Harbor , 1956, “all breathtakingly depicted with heightened, bird’s-eye points of view.” Dehn’s 1941 Spring in Central Park is one of the most reproduced pieces of artwork in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection.

Dr. Eliasoph, a pre-eminent scholar on Dehn’s Manhattan-themed work, is a professor of art history and visual culture in Fairfield University’s Visual and Performing Arts Department. He has written numerous scholarly books, catalogues, articles and reviews, and currently serves as a New York Times education blogger for arts and visual culture.

Adolf Dehn: Midcentury Manhattan is published by The Artist Book Foundation. The book’s forward was written by the Routh Coulter Heede, professor of Art History at Case Western Reserve University, and Henry Adams, PhD, author of hundreds of articles on art and artists, as well as over a dozen art-related books and catalogues.

The fifth annual Shop and Stroll is being co-sponsored by the Town of Fairfield and the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce. Participating shops in downtown Fairfield will extend business hours and welcome shoppers with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and seasonal refreshments, and local restaurants will feature dinner or drink specials. Traveling carolers and musicians from Fairfield Warde High School Chamber Singers, Fairfield Ludlowe High School (Close Harmony), and Fairfield Prep (Encords) will fill the sidewalks with holiday cheer, joined by the Fairfield Ludlowe brass ensemble and flute choir.

Fairfield University is a modern, Jesuit Catholic university rooted in one of the world’s oldest intellectual and spiritual traditions. More than 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students from the U.S. and across the globe are pursuing degrees in the University’s five schools. Fairfield embraces a liberal humanistic approach to education, encouraging critical thinking, cultivating free and open inquiry, and fostering ethical and religious values. The University is located on a stunning 200- acre campus on the scenic Connecticut coast just an hour from New York City.