Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Charles Sheeler: An Explorer Of Abstraction And Realism


Born on this day in 1883, Charles Sheeler became one of the founding members of the Modernist arts in the United States. He was trained as a draftsman as well as an artist and comfortable in the world of photography as well as paint on canvas. If we were to use one word to describe his work, it would be "precision."

A class visit to the Phillips Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in the early 1970s introduced me to the artist and I've had a growing appreciation of his his work since then.  Below are some examples. I hope you enjoy them.

American Landscape                                                                                        1930
Pertaining to Yachts and Yachting                                                                 1922
Yankee Clipper                                                                                                  1939

Golden Gate                                                                                                        1955
"I favor a picture which arrives at its destination without the evidence of a trying journey rather than one which shows the marks of battle."                                 
                                                                               Charles Sheeler                              

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