1965.148: Totems in Steel

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1965.148

People

Charles Sheeler, American (Philadelphia, PA 1883 - 1965 Dobbs Ferry, NY)

Title

Totems in Steel

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

1935

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/308758

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Black crayon and graphite on cream wove paper

Dimensions

48.5 x 57.7 cm (19 1/8 x 22 11/16 in.)
framed: 61.6 × 71.8 × 2.2 cm (24 1/4 × 28 1/4 × 7/8 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: black crayon, l.r.: Sheeler-1935
• exhibition label: backing board, paper, German
• exhibition label: backing board, paper
• exhibition label: backing board, paper, English: lent by Downtown Gallery
• exhibition label: backing board, paper, English: no. 66.2267
• exhibition label: backing board, paper: CSR.88.74.3
• exhibition label: 1987-1988, backing board, paper: Traveling exhibition, also at Whitney and MFA Dallas. Catalogue no. 53 1987/88
• exhibition label: backing board, paper: no. 365.56
• exhibition label: backing board, paper, English: no. 2195
• exhibition label: backing board, paper, English: no. 39.647, lent by Downtown Gallery.
• exhibition label: backing board, paper: label partially covered
• gallery label: backing board, paper, English: no. 71

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

[Downtown Gallery, New York, New York], sold to Paul J. Sachs, Cambridge, Massachusetts (L. 2091), 1953, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1965.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Meta and Paul J. Sachs

Accession Year

1965

Object Number

1965.148

Division

Modern and Contemporary Art

Contact

am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Publication History

• Constance Rourke, Charles Sheeler, Artist in the American Tradition, Harcourt, Brace and Co. (New York, NY, 1938), p. 167
• "Five Painters of America", Worcester Art Museum News Bulletin and Calendar (Worcester, MA, March 1955), XX, p. 22, reproduced
• Golden Years of American Drawings, 1905 - 1956, exh. cat., Brooklyn Museum (New York, NY, 1957), p. 35
• The Quest of Charles Sheeler, exh. cat., University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA, 1963), no. 43, p. 22, reproduced fig. 11
• Agnes Mongan, Memorial Exhibition: Works of Art from the Collection of Paul J. Sachs [1878-1965]: given and bequeathed to the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, exh. cat., Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1965), cat. no. 71, repr.
• Martin Friedman, Charles Sheeler, exh. cat., National Collection of Fine Arts (Washington, D.C, 1968), reproduced, no. 80
• Abraham A. Davidson, "Charles Sheeler, Paintings and Photographs at the Whitney", Arts Magazine (March 1969), vol. XLIII, ill. p. 40
• Martin Friedman, Charles Sheeler, Watson-Guptill Publications (New York, NY, 1975), reproduced p. 86
• Seymour Simmons, III and Mark S. A. Winer, Drawing: the Creative Process, Prentice-Hall, Inc. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1977), reproduced in b/w, p. 241, fig. 9.2
• Malerei und Photographie im Dialog von 1840 bis Heute, exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich (Zurich, Switzerland, 1977), p. 405, pl. 598
• Caroline A. Jones, Modern Art at Harvard: The Formation of the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums (New York, NY and Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press, 1985). With an essay by John Coolidge and a preface by John M. Rosenfield. To accompany the inaugural exhibition at the Sackler Museum, Oct 21 1985 - Jan 5 1986, p. 36, fig. 20
• Carol Troyen and Erica E. Hirshler, Charles Sheeler: Paintings and Drawings, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA, 1987), no. 53, reproduced
• [Unidentified article], Bijutsu Techo (Japan, May 1988), reproduced p. 37
• Modern Art at Harvard, exh. cat., Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc. (Tokyo, Japan, 1999), cat. no. 47, repr. (color)
• Charles Brock, Charles Sheeler: Across Media, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art and University of California Press (Washington, DC and Berkeley, 2006), pp. 48, 51, 116, cat. 17 (repr.)
• Melissa Venator, Lynette Roth, and Merrill C. Berman, Carl Grossberg: Works in the Merrill C. Berman Collection, ed. Melissa Venator, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2018), p. 26, fig. 13, ill. (b/w)
• Emma Acker, Cult of the Machine: Precisionism and American Art, exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (San Francisco, CA, 2018), p. 168, cat. no. 89, ill. (color)

Exhibition History

• An Exhibition of Paintings by Charles Burchfield and Charles Sheeler, Society of Arts and Crafts, Detroit, 01/12/1935 - 02/02/1935
• 17th International Exhibition of Watercolors, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 01/01/1938 - 12/31/1938
• Charles Sheeler: Paintings, Drawings, Photographs, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 01/01/1939 - 12/31/1939
• This is Our City: An Exhibition of Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Prints, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 03/11/1941 - 04/13/1941
• Five Painters of America, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, 02/17/1955 - 04/03/1955
• Contemporary American Drawings, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, 01/11/1956 - 02/26/1956
• Golden Years of American Drawings 1950 - 1956, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, 01/22/1957 - 03/19/1957
• The Quest of Charles Sheeler, University of Iowa, Iowa City, 03/17/1963 - 04/14/1963
• American Drawings Lent by the Fogg Museum, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lexington, 06/30/1964 - 09/30/1964
• Memorial Exhibition: Works of Art from the Collection of Paul J. Sachs [1878-1965] Given and Bequeathed to the Fogg Art Museum Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 11/15/1965 - 01/15/1966; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 12/19/1966 - 02/26/1967
• Charles Sheeler Memorial Exhibition, National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, 10/09/1968 - 11/24/1968; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 01/09/1969 - 02/16/1969; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 03/10/1969 - 04/27/1969
• Perception and Illusion, St. Paul's School, Concord, 02/01/1971 - 02/28/1971
• Charles Sheeler, the Works on Paper, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park, 02/10/1974 - 03/24/1974; Terry Dintenfass, Inc., New York, 04/02/1974 - 04/20/1974
• Malerei und Photographie im Dialog von 1840 bis Heute, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich, 05/12/1977 - 07/31/1977
• Charles Sheeler, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 10/13/1987 - 01/03/1988; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 01/28/1988 - 04/17/1988; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, 05/15/1988 - 07/10/1988
• The Harvard Society for Contemporary Art, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/29/1992 - 03/07/1993
• The Heavenly Twins: Edward W. Forbes, Paul J. Sachs and the Building of a Collection, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/23/1995 - 12/17/1995
• Modern Art at Harvard, Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, 07/31/1999 - 09/26/1999; Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa, 10/09/1999 - 11/14/1999; Matsuzakaya Art Museum, Nagoya, 12/02/1999 - 12/27/1999; Oita City Museum, Oita, 01/06/2000 - 02/06/2000; Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki, Ibaraki, 02/11/2000 - 03/26/2000
• Albert Kahn: Inspiration for the Modern, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, 06/02/2001 - 10/21/2001
• HAA 1 Survey Course: Survey of World Art: Modern Art, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/23/2005 - 07/31/2005
• The Cult of the Machine, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, 03/24/2018 - 08/12/2018

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