Art is Everywhere


Posted on by Dr. James McMahon

What is Art?

Art allows us to express our creativity and nurtures imagination. Through painting, sculpture, photography or another medium, artistic works allow individuals to express feelings, thoughts and observations while allowing us to appreciate what is around us or to see the world around us in different ways. Art is beauty, but beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. As such, art also allows us to find pleasure in the sight of clouds or the splendor of a meadow, in the experience of the mundane or the excitement of the extraordinary, but also where beauty is not usually perceived, such as a rooftop, a factory, or a gritty streetscape.

Charles Demuth

Lancaster artist Charles Demuth (1883-1935) was an artist who saw beauty in everything around him. A pioneer of the Precisionist style and a master watercolorist, Demuth explored a variety of themes in his work and his perhaps best known for his 1928 abstract painting I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold. Demuth was also inspired by the architecture of Lancaster, producing an important group of paintings between 1919 and 1933 that incorporated typical urban features including steeples, rooftops, and smokestacks.

Charles Demuth Self Portrait
Charles Demuth, Self Portrait, 1907, oil on canvas, gift of Margaret Lestz, Demuth Museum Collection.
Demuth Look Magazine
Photograph of Charles Demuth published in Look Magazine, courtesy of the Demuth Foundation.
Demuth as Clown
Ferdinand Demuth, Charles Demuth in a Clown Costume, n.d., gelatin silver print, Demuth Museum Archives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Demuth and Armstrong Cork Company

Industrial features associated with the Armstrong Cork Company’s manufacturing facility served as the source for the largest number of urban architectural paintings by Demuth in Lancaster. These include Machinery (or For W. Carlos W.), a depiction of a cyclone separator used in the manufacturing process, 1920; Chimney and Water Tower, a depiction of a water tower and one of several smokestacks within the factory complex, 1931; and After All, a depiction including a festoon stove used to cure linoleum, 1933.

Whether you are visiting a museum, strolling down a street, or musing about the world around you, take a page from Charles Demuth’s sketchbook and discover beauty in the world and around you. Art is indeed everywhere!

This blog was inspired by #MuseumWeek 2021 and the theme #ArtIsEverywhereMW for Saturday, June 12. Special thanks to the Demuth Foundation for their assistance in locating and providing images for this blog.

 

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