Ury

Bülowstrasse High Station by Leo Lessur Ury (1922)

70.5 x 105 cm (27.76 x 41.34 in.)

Leo Lessur Ury (1861-1931) was a German landscapist who also dabbled in Biblical scenes in his later life. While his rural landscapes present wide-angled vistas of rolling hills and lush countryside, his cityscapes give the viewer an impression of compact and bustling urban existence. While his subjects vary in time of day and season, Ury is most known for his night-time images of café- and street-life. In Bülowstrasse High Station, Ury uses line, perspective, color, and light to depict a busy city street during the German Interwar Period.

Ury brings me into the work through his use of line and perspective. The visual focal point and the horizon line are left of center and just above, respectively. From here, visible and implied lines (called orthogonals) radiate out from a vanishing point high on the canvas, directly towards me. They surround me and fence me into the scene. I am no longer a passive viewer looking at a painting on a wall. I am in 1920s Berlin, crossing this street on this dark, rainy night.

By lifting the horizon, Ury enlarges the space the street occupies on the canvas. It also has a slight slope and is crowded with vehicles. Since I am positioned at the foot of this rise, everything seems pushed towards me. Headlights and streetlights form lines that converge at the vanishing point, drawing my eye to the large, black truck coming towards me. I suddenly feel anxious and the need to get out of its way, fast.

The work is mostly black and yellow. Yellow is a brilliant color that can explode out of the black. Its brightness can be dominant, so Ury uses it sparingly to represent small, limited areas of light. Ury paints car and train lights, and streetlamps but no buildings with lit windows. It’s raining very hard, but there’s no lightning, and the thick rain and clouds erase the moon and stars. All lighting is artificial and low to the ground. I think this weighs down the work as a whole. I think this softens the yellow and reduces its power causing the thick blackness to dominate.

While Ury eliminates specific human forms, their presence is everywhere—in the trains, cars, and artificial light. These machines replace humanity and, for me, create an impersonal setting. They also replace the natural din of human interaction with the noise of car engines, horns, brake squeals, and trains running on tracks. The deep blackness caused by the heavy downpour and the bright glare of the lights removes any real detail in the work. While Bülowstrasse High Station shows people going about their daily lives, there’s very little humanity. For me, this painting is cold, oppressive, and anxious, and creates a negative impression of city life.

This work is cared for by a private collector.

© December 7, 2024