I guessed that it must have been nighttime that Stella tried to capture, for at night the shining lights from the city would flicker against the bridge and bring out the character of the steel in ways sunlight could not. Sunlight was too harsh and strong; it would overpower the subtleties of steel. Steel appreciated the gentle caress of moonlight and streetlamp and the headlights of cars.
The more I questioned Stella's use of light in "Old Brooklyn Bridge," the greater the painting shone. I was starting to see colors where I had not previously seen. Rich and joyful blues complemented the blood red; yellows and greens accented the thick black background. Orbs of soft white light emanating from the underbelly of the bridge illuminated its sides proudly. Contrast between light and shadow, while not quite reaching Caravaggio-like chiaroscuro, was one of the most striking aspects of "Old Brooklyn Bridge." Stella's ability to render a heavy, industrial, cold urban object with such luminosity and sensitivity bore witness to the brilliance of the painter. This bridge had soul.
The definite, deliberate rendering of shadow and light in "Old Brooklyn Bridge" also symbolized the painting's social context. Urban centers are if nothing else a complex mix of life and death, struggle and liberation, harshness and intimacy....
Stella's way of seeing imparted these contrasts on the canvas. "All images are manmade," (Berger 107). Depicting a quintessentially man-made object such as this underscores the human participation in creation. The urban setting is the most man-made of all settings, and Stella's painting is a particularly human way of seeing in the urban landscape a beauty and sublimity that rivals nature. Just as the seagull cares little whether or not he sits on a tree branch or on a bridge cable, so too does Stella care little that his subject matter is inorganic and fabricated.
Old Brooklyn Bridge" taught me about the different ways of seeing. Studying it, I understood "the experience of art" that Berger refers to in his article. Its spiritual value, its ability to stimulate and sublimate my mind, proves that "we can also be seen," (107). "Old Brooklyn Bridge" is a dynamic painting. Like the cars that whir by on the Brooklyn Bridge at night, the human eye is drawn constantly upwards and inwards, outwards and downwards, following Stella's enthusiasm for his subject. If I infer too much fro Stella's work of art, if I assume too much, then I only prove what Berger says in his article: "although every image embodies a way of seeing, our perception or appreciation of an image depends also upon our own way of seeing," (107).
