Gerald Geerlings

Black Magic

1929

Geerlings is best known for his lithographs and intaglio prints of the 1920s and 1930s. He was partly self-taught, although he studied periodically at the Royal College of Art in London between 1929 and 1932. His preferred subjects were the emerging metropolises of New York and Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s. He was awarded first prize for the best etching at the 'Century of Progress,' Chicago World's Fair of 1933 for Grand Canal, America, 1933. After his retirement from architectural practice in 1970, Geerlings devoted himself exclusively to drawing and lithography. The images created by Gerald K. Geerlings provide not only a quality of technical achievement but also a visual delight matched by few of his contemporaries. Throughout his distinguished career as a decorated soldier, an accomplished architect and an artist of substantial artistic virtuosity, Gerald Geerlings has created an elegant legacy. As an artist, Geerlings is by no means prolific. His meticulous working method is readily apparent in either his stunning aquatints of the 1920s through 1930s or delicate pastels from 1970 and the 1980s. Fewer than sixty prints in several mediums were created between 1926 to 1933 and 1975 to 1988. The images created by Gerald K. Geerlings provide not only a quality of technical achievement but also a visual delight matched by few of his contemporaries. Throughout his distinguished career as a decorated soldier, an accomplished architect, and an artist of substantial artistic virtuosity, Gerald Geerlings has created an elegant legacy