The Errant Æsthete

Chimneys & Towers: Charles Demuth’s Paintings of Lancaster

“…a gorgeous, tightly focused exhibition…” - The New York Times

Search the history of American art, and you will discover few watercolors more beautiful than those of Charles Demuth. Between 1927 and his death in 1935, Charles Demuth produced a last major series of paintings based on the architecture of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the town in which he was raised and lived intermittently throughout his life. This exhibition examines this key group of paintings, beginning with My Egypt, the precisionist depiction of a Lancaster grain elevator that is perhaps Demuth’s best known and most powerful late work.

Through analyzing the specifics of place, subject, and style, the exhibition and accompanying catalogue explore the complex dynamics of Demuth’s world at the end of his career. In addition to six major paintings, the exhibition will include preparatory drawings, watercolors, and photographs of Lancaster’s industrial architecture. Currently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art; runs through April 27, 2008. Featured works from Wikimedia Commons: Chimney and Watertower (1932), Buildings Lancaster, and My Egypt (1927).