Industrial Inspiration

What does Charles Demuth say about a changing America in his paintings?

Enlargeable image of Charles Demuth's painting of incense coming from a church

Charles Demuth (1883-1935), Incense of a New Church, 1921. Oil on canvas. Columbus Museum of Art

What feelings does Demuth evoke with the geometric and organic shapes in this painting?

Black & white photo of the painter, Charles Demuth

The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, NY

Charles Demuth

When Charles Demuth was 4 years old, a hip injury left him bedridden. His mother gave him crayons and watercolors for entertainment. Soon the little boy from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, knew he wanted to be an artist. “Deem,” as his friends called him, died two weeks before his 52nd birthday. But during his life, he became a leader among the Precisionist artists.

Demuth painted industrial and urban American subjects, hoping viewers would spend time decoding his paintings and thinking about what they could mean. “Paintings must be looked at and looked at,” he once said. “‘Look at that!’ is all that can be said before a great painting—at least by those who really see it.”

European Influences 

Early in his career, Demuth focused on watercolor paintings of flowers. After spending time in Paris, he began experimenting with oil painting in a more abstract style, taking inspiration from Cubism—an artistic movement that emphasized geometry and fractured planes.

As American industry boomed during the 1920s, Demuth painted industrial scenes near his home in Lancaster. For example, his 1921 Incense of a New Church, above, depicts the Lukens steel yards in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Demuth uses dramatic organic forms to show the smoke from the steel yards curling upward in the foreground and the dark silhouettes of buildings rising in the background.

The painting’s title, Incense of a New Church, hints at Demuth’s opinion of society’s changing values at the time. By comparing the smoke produced in the steel yards to incense—an aromatic substance burned during some religious ceremonies—he seems to say that manufacturing was replacing religion at the heart of American life.

Enlargeable image of Charles Demuth's painting of a steel yard using oil, chalk, and pencil

Charles Demuth, My Egypt, 1927. Oil, fabricated chalk, and graphite pencil on composition board. Whitney Museum of American Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY.

How does Demuth show the significance of the grain elevator in modern American life?

Modern Monuments

Demuth continues to ask questions about modern life in his 1927 My Egypt, above, which depicts a steel grain elevator in Lancaster. The massive structure looms over the smaller buildings in the foreground, which represent small family farms that were the agricultural centers of the past. Intersecting geometric planes add movement and illuminate the elevator.

By naming Egypt in the painting’s title, Demuth compares the grain elevator to Egypt’s great pyramids. He might even be making a connection between the harsh conditions endured by the enslaved people who built the pyramids and the American workers on factory lines. Easily recognizable shapes that read like flags, banners, seating, and lights appear throughout the composition. Mehretu also adds shapes and symbols that might remind you of corporate logos. Notice the colorful lines and dots throughout the work. How does their repetition create a sense of rhythm?

Enlargeable Charles Demuth painting of the number 5 made out of oil, graphite, ink, and gold leaf

Charles Demuth, I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold, 1928. Oil, graphite, ink, and gold leaf on paperboard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, NY.

How does Demuth portray Williams’s ideas in his portrait?

Poetic Portrait

Demuth also innovated a new type of portrait. I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold, completed in 1928, is a symbolic portrait of the poet William Carlos Williams, one of Demuth’s good friends. This painting, above, is one of eight symbolic portraits that Demuth painted honoring great American writers, performers, and artists.

Instead of painting Williams’s likeness, Demuth uses imagery from his poem “The Great Figure,” which describes a racing fire engine. The repeated number 5, intersecting lines, and bold colors evoke the poem’s energy and speed.

This work is different from the others shown. What makes it Precisionist?

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