Helen Torr
Corrugated Building

Corrugated Building

© Estate of Helen Torr

Corrugated Building
Corrugated Building
ArtistAmerican, 1886–1967
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Corrugated Building
Date1929
PlaceUnited States
MediumOil on panel
DimensionsPanel: 26 7/8 × 19 1/8 in. (68.3 × 48.6 cm)
Frame: 28 1/2 × 20 1/2 × 1 in. (72.4 × 52.1 × 2.5 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by The Brown Foundation, Inc., and Isabel B. Wilson in memory of Peter C. Marzio
Object number2011.206
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
American Art
Object Type
DescriptionIn the late 1920s, Helen Torr and Arthur
Dove shared a houseboat in Huntington
Harbor, Long Island. In Corrugated Building,
Torr pointedly avoided the picturesque
surroundings, concentrating instead on an
industrial structure. She presents a dramatic,
foreshortened view of the tin building with
its red hoist, contrasting the clean lines of
the built environment with the swirling
clouds in the sky. Alfred Stieglitz exhibited
this painting in 1933 at An American Place,
in one of the only two exhibitions that Torr
had during her lifetime.
ProvenanceTorr Estate; Graham Gallery, New York, 1967 (?); Private Collection, 1975.
Exhibition HistoryAn American Place, New York, 1933.

"American Made: 250 Years of American Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, July 7, 2012–January 2, 2013.

“American Modern: Works from the Collection of Alice C. Simkins,” Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, April 15–July 19, 2015.

"New Women: Four New York Modernists, 1910-1935," Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, February 18–May 15, 2016; Portland Museum of Art, Maine, June 23–September 18, 2016.

"Georgia O'Keeffe and American Modernism," McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, January 19–December 11, 2022.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Marked in ink on verso backboard: "Corrugated Building - 1929"
Signed in ink on verso backboard: "Helen Torr"
Printed labels on verso: (See photocopies of back labels in the Accessions file)

"GRAHAM GALLERY 1014 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK ... (in a circle) / ARTIST Helen Torr (1886-1967) / TITLE Corrugated Building, 1929 / MEDIUM oil on board / ... "
"ADDISON FINE ARTS / 2461 BUCHANAN STREET / SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94115 / ... "
"HELEN TORR / "Corrugated Building"
"CIRKER STORAGE / New York, N.Y. / MU 6-5200 / ..."
ATTHOWE FINE ART SERVICES / ... Oakland, California 94608 / ... "

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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