Charles Demuth (1883-1935) American Watercolorist Figure Five in Gold

1. Today's Lesson • Charles Demuth (1883-1935) • American Watercolorist • Figure Five in Gold • Precisionism: American Cubism or Cubist Realism • Cubist style using images of Industrial America • Drawing lesson on perspective • “A geometric method of representing on paper the way that objects appear to get smaller and closer together, the further away they are.” • Extra lessons on perspective (if time allows) or you can work adding details to your perspective drawing

2. Who was Charles Demuth (1883-1935)? • Born wealthy • American watercolorist, later did oils • (born and raised in Pennsylvania) • Attended fine arts school in Penn. • later studied in Paris • Known for Precisionism • (cubist realism, the face of Industrial America) • One leg longer than the other, limped and carried a cane • polio? • Diabetic: one of the first to receive insulin treatments • Not many admirers nor colleagues • He was well read (a small talent as a writer) • Exceptional at watercolor • Friend/roommate in Penn. was William Carlos Williams: American doctor and writer: Modernist, Imaginist • Died at 51 yrs. old, complications from diabetes • Figure 5 in Gold 1928

3. Precisionism (American Cubism)

4. Friends and collaborators Charles Demuth William Carlos Williams (wrote a poem about his painting) (painted a portrait about his poem)

5. Close your eyes and listen….what do you see? The Great Figure Among the rainand lightsI saw the figure 5in goldon a redfire truckmovingtenseunheededto gong clangssiren howlsand wheels rumblingthrough the dark city The Great Figure by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)Sour Grapes: A Book of Poems, Four Seas Company, Boston, 1921: Inspired by a sighting while in N.Y. waiting at the door of a friend, of a fire engine rushing down the street.

7. Another 5 approaching?

8. William (Bill) Carlos Williams (see his name in the art?)

9. Robert IndianaThe Figure Five, 1963Inspired by Charles Demuth's painting, Robert Indiana completes the circle of influence as a poet in his own right. Another painter inspired by Demuth!

10. The rules of perspective: One point perspectiveThe simplest form of perspective is one point perspective. It presumes a single Point, which all others move towards. It Is like looking down a straight road as far as you can see, lines which we know are parallel seem to converge on a single point known as the Vanishing Point. We can see this in the picture of the Agora in Athens. (Below)

11. What is a Vanishing Point? Lines that move away from our view point converge to the vanishing point. Linear Perspective is a geometric method of representing on paper the way that objects appear to get smaller and closer together, the further away they are

12. The Great Figure Analyzed Among the rainand lights(background of grays & blacks, streaks like rain, street lights) I saw the figure 5in goldon a redfire truck (red & gold only vibrant colors used)movingtense(pulling & pushing, continuous movement v. instant perception, receding & approaching, a no. suspended against red background) unheededto gong clangssiren howlsand wheels rumblingthrough the dark city (hides words in the print) The Great Figure Among the rainand lightsI saw the figure 5in goldon a redfire truckmovingtenseunheededto gong clangssiren howlsand wheels rumblingthrough the dark city

13. Analysis of the Figure Five • Icon of American modernism • The significance of the number five • 5 gold rings (12 days of Xmas), 5 senses, 5 fingers, the middle of ten • A typed five, pulls the literature into the piece • Perspective • Five coming forward and out of the picture • Train coming at you • Words embedded in the print • Bill • Carlo • W.C.W. • No. • C.D. • Light & dark, rainy night, grays & blacks