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Totems in Steel
19353 11/16 x 5 1/8 in. (9.4 x 13 cm)
Charles Sheeler
United States (Philadelphia, PA, 1883 - 1965, Dobbs Ferry, NY)
Object Type:
Watercolor
Medium and Support:
Gouache and watercolor
Credit Line:
Gift of Peter Iselin and his sister, Emilie Iselin Wiggin
Accession Number:
1974.94
Location: Not currently on view
This image of a New York City construction site is based on a film still from Charles Sheeler’s 1920 film collaboration with photographer Paul Strand, Manhatta. In the ten-minute film, the artists track the dynamism of Manhattan through the course of a day, focusing on the unique pulse and geometry of the city’s machinery, vehicles, and architecture. Manhatta provided Sheeler with numerous images from which he later painted.
The title of this painting, Totems in Steel, frames modern engineering, industry, and architecture in quasi-religious terms. Sheeler wrote, “In a period such as ours when only a comparatively few individuals seem to be given to religion, some form other than the Gothic cathedral must be found. Industry concerns the greatest numbers—it may be true, as has been said, that our factories are our substitute for religious expression.”
[label text for Modern Icon: The Machine As Subject in American Art exhibition, February 3 – March 6, 2012]
The title of this painting, Totems in Steel, frames modern engineering, industry, and architecture in quasi-religious terms. Sheeler wrote, “In a period such as ours when only a comparatively few individuals seem to be given to religion, some form other than the Gothic cathedral must be found. Industry concerns the greatest numbers—it may be true, as has been said, that our factories are our substitute for religious expression.”
[label text for Modern Icon: The Machine As Subject in American Art exhibition, February 3 – March 6, 2012]
Marks
Artist's signature, lower right: Charles Sheeler
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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
- Recent Acquisitions & Memorial Bequests 1/8/1975 - 2/23/1975
- Selections from the Permanent Collection Summer 1975
- Shapes of Industry Terry Dintenfass, Inc. 11/4/1975 - 11/29/1975
- Charles Sheeler, 1883-1965: Classic Themes - Paintings, Drawings and Photographs 5/10/1980 - 5/30/1980
- Order and Enigma: American Art Between the Two Wars Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute 10/13/1984 - 3/2/1986
- American Drawings and Watercolors, 1800-1945: Selections from the Permanent Coll Memorial Art Gallery 10/31/1987 - 1/3/1988
- Albert Kahn: Inspiration for the Modern 6/2/2001 - 10/21/2001
- Charles Sheeler: Across Media The National Gallery of Art (Washington) 5/7/2006 - 5/6/2007
- Modern Icon: The Machine as Subject in American Art Memorial Art Gallery 2/3/2012 - 5/6/2012
Bibliography
This object has the following bibliographic references:
- Article Title: Autumn Gallery Exhibition, Order and Enigma Opens September 14. Memorial Art Gallery. Gallery Notes. Rochester, New York: Memorial Art Gallery, 1935-1995. Issue Date: September 1985.
- Brian Carter, ed. Albert Kahn: Inspiration for the Modern. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Art, 2001.
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Charles Brock. Charles Sheeler: Across Media. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006.
- Marjorie B. Searl, ed. Seeing America: painting and sculpture from the collection of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 2006.
- Article Author: Green, Fiona. Article Title: 'The Iroquois on the Girders': poetry, modernity, and the Indian ironworker. Article Scope: Mention and reproduction. Critical Quarterly. Blackwell Publishers Inc. Volume Number: 55, Issue Number: 2. Issue Date: July 2013. Page Number: 2, Figure Number: 1
- Article Scope: Mention and reproduction. Emma Acker. Cult of the Machine: Precisionism and American Art. San Francisco, CA: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2018.
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Manhatta: A Film by Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler
In 1920 Paul Strand and artist Charles Sheeler collaborated on Manhatta, a short silent film that presents a day in the life of lower Manhattan. Inspired by Walt Whitman's book Leaves of Grass, the film includes multiple segments that express the character of New York. The sequences display a similar approach to the still photography of both artists. Attracted by the cityscape and its visual design, Strand and Sheeler favored extreme camera angles to capture New York's dynamic qualities. Although influenced by Romanticism in its view of the urban environment, Manhatta is considered the first American avant-garde film.