1
Exhibitions%20%3D%20%22149%22%20and%20Disp_Obj_Type%20%3D%20%22Watercolor%22%20and%20Sort_Artist%20%3D%20%22Sheeler,%20Charles%22
Watercolor
Totems in Steel
Charles Sheeler, 1883 - 1965
Sheeler, Charles
United States
1883 - 1965
Male
3 11/16 x 5 1/8 in. (9.4 x 13 cm)
.
.
.
image
Gouache
Gouache
1935
1935
1935
1900-2000, 20th century, architecture in art, cityscapes, Precisionism, watercolors
Watercolor
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, <em>Manhatta</em>. 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. <em>Manhatta</em> provided Sheeler with numerous images from which he later painted.
The title of this painting, <em>Totems in Steel</em>, 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 <em>Modern Icon: The Machine As Subject in American Art</em> exhibition, February 3 – March 6, 2012]
lower right, below imagelower right, in image
1974.94
item
Memorial Art Gallery
9/8/1999
74.94SL1
slide
full
2 x 2
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Graphics/blank.gif
negative
4x5
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Graphics/blank.gif
glossy
4x5
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Graphics/blank.gif
74.94BW1
glossy
8x10
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Graphics/blank.gif
74.94DI2
digital image
3/22/2005
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/74.94_A1.jpg
74.94TR1
transparency
full
4 x 5
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Graphics/blank.gif
55sheeler2.tif
digital image
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/SeeingAmerica/55sheeler2.tif
74.94DI#3
digital image
1/20/2006
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/74.94_A2.jpg