25 YEARS OF THE DEMUTH:

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1 IN THIS ISSUE 25 Years of the Demuth: 5th Annual Art in a Box Exhibition Preview Artist Talk: Matthew Lawrence Local Playwright Inspired by Demuth and Williams Forbidden Firsts: Jazz at Marshall's Exhibition Preview 2006 Corporate and Foundation Membership MARK YOUR CALENDAR 25 Years of the Demuth: September 15 - November 30, 2006 "Cheers to Charlie" Birthday and Anniversary Celebration November 10, 2006 Art In A Box Exhibition December 3 - December 31, 2006 Opening Reception: December 3, 1-3 pm Museum Closed Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 23rd Christmas Day, Monday, December 25th Mondays and the month of January Quarterly Newsletter ISSUE/NOVEMBER 2006 VOLUME 24, No. 1 Charles Demuth is world-renowned for his Precisionist paintings of the architecture of Lancaster s factories, grain elevators and churches. He was the primary force in developing this hard-edged style, examples of which can be found in major museums across the United States and Europe. Heralded as a leading light among early American Figure 1 25 YEARS OF THE DEMUTH: modernist painters such as John Marin, Charles Sheeler, and Georgia O Keeffe, Demuth distinguished himself from his contemporaries in his profoundlyfelt renderings of his native Lancaster s buildings. But these works in his signature style are few and far between; Demuth suffered from diabetes, a debilitating disease that rendered him (continued in center insert)

2 On view from December 3rd through December 31st, 2006, will be the 5th annual Art in a Box Exhibition. The exhibition features the works of local students who have been learning about the life and art of Charles Demuth in their classrooms by using the Art in a Box Program. The students will be showing works based on themes found in Demuth artworks inspired by the city of Lancaster. Thanks to the Lancaster County Community Foundation, who, in recognition of the success in both impact and outreach the Demuth has achieved through the Art in a Box program, supported the renovation of our existing boxes including development of two new themed kits. Art in a Box resource themes now include: Architecture, Portraiture, Art from Poetry, Art from Life The Demuth Holds 5th Annual Art in a Box Exhibition and Illustration. The renovated boxes now also include: 120 reproductions for classroom use, a thematic PowerPoint presentation, and additional resources and project plans. The Demuth has received excellent feedback from teachers and participants in the program regarding the renovation and looks forward to expanding the outreach of the program in coming years. In conjunction with the Art in a Box renovation, the Demuth was also able to hold an inservice day for educators in June of 2006 to familiarize participants with the life and art of Charles Demuth, as well as the Demuth complex. The inservice day was attended by educators who were familiar with the Art in a Box program, as well as educators who were new to the program, all of whom provided valuable insights on the newly renovated Art in a Box materials, which were demonstrated during the day. Three of the educators who attended the summer inservice will be participating in the Art in a Box exhibition. The Art in a Box Exhibition will highlight the artistic achievements of six local school groups this year. Participating schools include: Lititz Area Mennonite School, Penn Manor High School, Warwick Middle School, Buchanan Elementary School, Lancaster Country Day School and the AME Bethel Church School group. The exhibition has been sponsored by Thomas A. and Georgina The Demuth s second Young Modernist event, Artist Talk: Matthew Lawrence, held in our companion space at 116 East King Street, was a great success due in no small part to our main attraction: Matthew Lawrence. Mr. Lawrence, selfproclaimed glitter artist, works with appropriated images from his childhood in England, using glitter, mirrors, and found objects in wildly entertaining narratives. During his insightful and engaging talk, he discussed his inspirations as an artist and the method to his madness. Mr. Lawrence brought with him a selection of his paintings for the group to look at, which was greatly appreciated as so much T. Russo, and the opening will be held on December 3rd, 2006, from 1-3pm at the Demuth Museum. All are welcome to attend. Above Left: Taylor Shelbie, of Penn Manor High School, created this work for the 2006 exhibition, inspired by Central Market. Above: John Righter and Samantha Kimmel, from Warwick Middle School, participants in 2005 exhibition. Artist Talk: Matthew Lawrence of the interest in his work is apparent when viewed in person. During the artist talk, Mr. Lawrence also demonstrated his glittering technique for the audience. The Young Modernist group, recently formed at the Demuth, is a way for young artists and collectors to engage in learning about, growing and sustaining Lancaster s arts community. The Young Modernist group and the Demuth would like to thank Mr. Lawrence for an insightful presentation. For more information, please contact the Demuth Museum at Left: Artist, Matthew Lawrence, demonstrating his glitter technique, 2006.

3 Corporate Members November 2006 The Demuth would like to gratefully acknowledge all of the corporations and foundations who contributed in Corporate support is essential to the continuation of our educational programs, exhibitions, collecting and preserving the art of Charles Demuth. A Lancaster native, Charles made the beautiful gardens and buildings the subject of his internationally renowned art. The Demuth Museum is devoted to furthering the understanding of Charles Demuth, his art and legacy to future generations of artists and Lancastrians. Our corporate members make an investment in this unique Lancaster heritage. CORPORATIONS Arborist Enterprises, Inc. Bank of Lancaster County Benchmark Construction Company Clair Brothers Audio Enterprises, Inc. Ephrata National Bank, Ephrata Branch Ephrata National Bank, Lititz Branch Evans Eagle Burial Vaults, Inc. Fulton Bank Gallagher Construction, Inc. Hammel Associates Architects Hazlett, Burt & Watson, Inc. James M. Hook & Co. Lancaster General Hospital MM Architects, Inc. NCS Pearson Paden de la Fuente, LLC Reese, Lower, Patrick & Scott Architects Shanks Extracts, Inc. Stoudt Advisors The High Companies The Raub Foundation Thomas A. & Georgina T. Russo Tippetts/Weaver Architects, Inc. White, Good & Co., Advertising Wohlsen Construction Company FOUNDATIONS James Hale Steinman Foundation John Frederick Steinman Foundation Lancaster County Community Foundation The Raub Foundation The Richard C. von Hess Foundation Weld Foundation Errata The Demuth Foundation and Museum would like to offer our apologies to the following members who were omitted due to error from the 2006 Membership List featured in the previous newsletter: John Chase Maxwell Constance A. McCollough Yvonne Harriau McConkey C. Suzanne Moore Mary F. Moore The Moran/Devine Household Cindi Morrison Margaret S. Moss Gary C. Mundorf Irv Nahan Ruth and Mort Nierenberg Local Playwright Inspired by Demuth and Williams Playwright and Lancastrian David Nice, inspired by the relationship between Charles Demuth and William Carlos Williams, based his latest play The Attic Which is Desire, on their life-long friendship. Set in Lancaster, the protagonist of the play, a modern day writer, Paul, looks to the relationship between Demuth and Williams for guidance and inspiration in his own writings and life. Specifically, Paul looks to Demuth and Williams to see how an artist can balance life s every day concerns -- work and family -- with the creative needs of an artist. The play moves between contemporary Lancaster and the life and times of Demuth and Williams. Research for the play was conducted here in Lancaster. Nice visited with the Demuth Foundation as well as other local historians who are knowledgeable on Demuth. Beginning his focus with William Carlos Williams, Nice s research drew him to include Demuth in the play. He met with several local Lancastrians who were helpful in shaping his understanding of Demuth. Written by David Nice, The Attic Which is Desire is part of Theater of the Seventh Sister s Project Genesis series which features fully performed stage readings of new scripts. The play was performed in October. After the performances, Nice received feedback from the audiences and will take that into consideration as he keeps moving forward with the play.

4 25 YEARS OF THE DEMUTH: Quarterly Newsletter ISSUE/NOVEMBER 2006 VOLUME 24, No YEARS OF THE DEMUTH: (continued from front cover) incapable of anything other than bed rest for periods of his life. As a result, his temperament and lifestyle were more suited to the medium of watercolor, which was currying favor with the early modernists of the time. Watercolor painting, an exacting medium because of the difficulty of exploiting its fluidity without sacrificing form, and of maintaining transparency inherent in washes, is most difficult because of the irrevocability of spills and errors. Demuth was a master of this medium; his evolving style and pioneering artistic achievements, celebrated in his famous architectural works, are inseparable from his lifelong exploration and contributions in watercolor. During the years , which are considered to be Demuth s most prolific, he utilized the free-flowing effects of the watercolor medium to capture his experiences while summering in Provincetown and traveling regularly Figure 2 Figure 3

5 from Lancaster to New York. While there, he was exposed to the work of expatriate artists, often via exhibitions of European and American modern art in the galleries of Alfred Stieglitz. Demuth and his friends also frequented nightclubs such as The Golden Swan and the jazz club in the Marshall Hotel. Here they found an alluring world in which black and white artists shared their interest in early jazz innovations. After 1920, as jazz became more formalized, the clubs moved north, and Demuth would travel to Barron Wilkins s Little Savoy Club in Harlem. Coincidentally, the move of jazz to Harlem is concurrent with Demuth s increasingly sophisticated use of the watercolor medium. This is evident in the difference between his nightclub scenes inspired by these haunts, such as At Marshall s of 1915 and At the Golden Swan of 1919 (Fig. 2). Despite the various cultural and intellectual influences in New York, Demuth never abandoned his cultural patrimony to paint like Europeans. Demuth was thoroughly American and painted the most when he was in his studio in Lancaster. He preferred to interpret what he saw literally in his own backyard. What he found there was his mother s flower and vegetable garden. As with his figural subjects, Demuth s floral works span his career and reveal the artist s evolving style. The earlier works such as Flowers, (Fig. 4) are examples of Demuth working in a Figure 5 free-flowing manner where he tones the whole background, incorporating the flowers into a seamless field of form and color. The specific spatial orientation of a floral bouquet or garden grouping is eschewed in favor of a more abstracted, flattened floral field. Demuth s evolution in technique and form toward a tighter, geometrically-layered style, is evident in later works such as Kiss Me Over the Fence (Fig. 1) from 1929 and in Pink Tulips (Fig. 5), from the following year. These are not the languid bouquets of the impressionists; rather Demuth allowed Precisionist principles to guide the creation of intimate floral master works. In watercolor Demuth found a very modern medium that was being utilized by his contemporaries. Watercolor dominated the output of the early American modernist painters and fascinated them because it mirrored the speed of modern life. The watercolors throughout Demuth s oeuvre reveal not only his increasingly innovative manipulation of the unique properties of this medium, but also the evolution of his artistic vision. It is in a delicate tangle of weeds or a cluster of pink tulips that Demuth was able to develop his love of precision, not in the world of steel construction. Honing a uniquely American art via the Precisionist style was achieved in watercolor as much as in the epic oils and temperas for which he is well-known. Excerpted from pamphlet essay by Anne M. Lampe. Figure 1: Charles Demuth Kiss Me Over the Fence, 1929 Watercolor and pencil on paper, 11 5/8 x 17 ½ inches Private Collection Figure 2: Charles Demuth At the Golden Swan, 1919 Watercolor on paper, 8 x 10 ½ inches Collection of Irwin and Francine Goldstein Figure 3: Charles Demuth Self Portrait, 1907 Oil on canvas, 26 x 18 inches Collection Demuth Museum, Lancaster, PA Figure 4: Charles Demuth Flowers, Watercolor on paper, 8 ½ x 11 inches Susan and Ken Stoudt Figure 5: Charles Demuth Pink Tulips, 1930 Watercolor on paper, 13 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches Collection Demuth Museum, Lancaster, PA Figure 4

6 FORBIDDEN FIRSTS: Jazz at Marshall's The Demuth Museum s 2007 exhibition schedule will kick-off with our annual Invitational exhibition, Forbidden Firsts: Jazz at Marshall s, on view from February 2 March 30, Over 20 local artists featured in the exhibition were asked to contribute a work of art which took as its inspiration the theme of the early jazz culture and bohemian artistic community of New York City nightclubs in the first decades of the twentieth century. Among these was the jazz club at the Marshall Hotel, frequented by Demuth and his contemporaries, including Marcel Duchamp, Edward Fisk and Marsden Hartley. Demuth spent his longest extended stay in New York in the winter of when Image: Charles Demuth, At Marshall s, 1915, Collection Demuth Museum, Lancaster, PA he took an apartment on Washington Square South. He depicted the club at Marshall s in five watercolor works during this period, including At Marshall s, 1915, from the Demuth Museum s Permanent Collection. Publication of the 2006 Demuth Dialogue is made possible in part by the Gilbert Endowment. MANY THANKS TO: David and Marie Zubatsky for their continuing generosity in donating books to the library. To Robert LeMin for donating the paint for a fresh coat in 116 East King Street. To Certified Carpet for helping with the installation of new carpet in 116 East King Street. To Carol Morgan and Sylvia Evans for their continuing volunteer time dedicated to the Demuth Library and Archives. Saranna Miller for donating a box of clippings relating to the Garden Tour and Demuth books for the library. Reminder to all our members: as we begin to grow our Library and Archives we are looking for donations of books, clippings and anything to do with Charles Demuth, the Collection and the Foundation. MUSEUM STUDIO GARDENS 120 East King Street, Lancaster PA Tuesday - Saturday 10-4 Sunday 1-4