Elsa Hutzler captured the shifting angles and vertical thrust of a growing metropolis by cutting and welding steel—a common material in building industrialized modern cities and in Abstract Expressionist sculpture of the 1950s. Sculptors of the time favored welded metal for its individuality and immediacy, since welding allowed the artist to build a line or quickly improvise a form. Hutzler’s composition balances geometric grids with linear entanglements and hovers between sculpture and architecture. The City won first prize in an exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1952.