Charles Demuth

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Alfred Stieglitz : Charles Demuth (1922)Demuth, Charles, signature of Charles Demuth from 1922.jpg
Charles Demuth: Self-Portrait (1907)
Charles Demuth: The Figure 5 in Gold (1928)
Love, love, love. Homage to Gertrude Stein (1928)

Charles Demuth (born November 9, 1883 in Lancaster , Pennsylvania, † October 23, 1935 there ) was an American painter.

Life

Demuth was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where his parents ran a tobacco shop. He studied in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts . During his studies he met William Carlos Williams , with whom he had a lifelong friendship.

He later went to Paris , where he studied at the Académie Colarossi and the Académie Julian and frequented Gertrude Stein's salon . In Paris he met Marsden Hartley , who referred him to the gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz . In his New York Intimate Gallery Demuth had his first solo exhibition in 1926.

Demuth often came to New York, where he frequented well-known gay hangouts such as the Lafayette bathhouse, but mostly lived again in his parents' house in Lancaster. Demuth suffered from a handicap in his hip and from severe diabetes , of which he died in 1935.

plant

Demuth created some of the most famous works in American painting of the 20th century. His most famous work, The Figure 5 in Gold (sometimes known as I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold ), was inspired by William Carlos Williams ' poem The Great Figure . It is one of nine poster portraits that Demuth created in honor of his artistic friends. These included the painter Georgia O'Keeffe , the painters Arthur Dove , Charles Stafford Duncan , Marsden Hartley , John Marin , as well as the authors Gertrude Stein , Eugene O'Neill , Wallace Stevens and Williams.

In other works such as My Egypt , Demuth turned the industrial architecture of the silos of his provincial homeland into icons of American modernism. During Demuth's lifetime, his explicitly erotic watercolors , which only his New York circle of friends could see, were completely unknown .

  • At Marshall’s , (1915). Pictured are Marcel Duchamp , Edward Fisk and Marsden Hartley .

  • The Jazz Singer (1916)

  • Trees and Barns Bermuda (1917)

  • Turkish Bath with Self Portrait (1918)

  • The Boat Ride from Sorrento (1919)

  • Wild Orchids (1920)

  • Spring (1921)

  • Incense of a New Church (1921)

  • Aucassiu and Nicolette (1921)

  • Study for poster portrait Marsden Hartley (around 1923/24)

  • Four male figures (1930)

literature

  • Jonathan Weinberg: Speaking for Vice. Homosexuality in the Art of Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, and the First American Avant-Garde. New Haven and London: Yale University Press 1993 (Yale publications in the history of art) ISBN 0-300-05361-4
  • Stephan Lidl: Art Companies: Image and text in William Carlos Williams' poetry of the 20s. Digitized

Web links

Commons : Charles Demuth  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Humility, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American painter
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Lancaster, Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH October 23, 1935
Place of death Lancaster, Pennsylvania