Charles Demuth ran with a sophisticated crowd. The people in his circle — Georgia O'Keefe, Marcel DuChamp, Marsden Hartley, Alfred Steiglitz — were turning their backs on tradition to create a new American art form.
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They sat in cafes, bars and salons and talked and worked and saw what other artists were doing. They marveled at how industrialism was changing the terrain of America, supplying a new, unbridled energy.
It was a heady time.
And Demuth was right there with them when he traveled, as he often did, to places like Philadelphia, New York, Paris and Provincetown, staying up all night, drinking, talking, debating.
But it was in Lancaster where all those ideas percolated and ultimately fused themselves into Demuth's most famous works — the grain elevators, smokestacks and water towers of the city.
How his travels influenced and changed that work is the subject of "Demuth's Destinations," opening Friday at the Demuth Museum.
"When he traveled, he was experiencing life, gathering up ideas, meeting people, filling his cup to the brim," says Anne Lampe, the executive director of the Demuth Museum, who curated the exhibit. "It was in his nature to go out there and soak it up. But he always came back to Lancaster to work."
The exhibit features a number of pieces from the museum's permanent collection as well as the archives.
His studio will be recreated and one of the paintings that Demuth kept there, a small painting of an avocado by O'Keefe, which is on loan from a private collector, along with several Matisse lithographs Demuth owned, will be displayed.
Lampe says Demuth's time in Philadelphia, where he went to art school, was integral to his development as a modern artist.
It was where he met William Carlos Williams (they stayed in the same boarding house), who introduced him to the poet Ezra Pound.
"They were committed to making something new, creating something that was uniquely American," Lampe says. "Philadelphia really held sway over New York as the place to go with the avant garde scene."
Demuth was a bon vivant and a sophisticate who made friends easily.
"I think Demuth was seen as this incredibly sophisticated person. He was always well dressed, very well red, very much attuned to a sophisticated life style," Lampe says. "We was traveling with some of the most elite people of the day."
Demuth spent extended periods of time in Europe. His first trip came in 1907, when he was 24. He stayed five months and met Gertrude and Leo Stein, among others.
He also explored the work of Paul Cezanne at a major retrospective of his work, which had a profound influence on a generation of artists.
The next trip to Paris, in 1912, lasted two years. During that stay he was working as an art scout for famed Philadelphia collector Dr. Albert Barnes, getting to know new artists and new movements, like cubism and fauvism.
After his long stay in Paris, Demuth began spending summers in Provincetown, where he hung out with playwright Eugene O'Neill and artist Marsden Hartley.
Hartley and Demuth would spend time in Bermuda, along with cubist Albert Gleizes. It was here that he really began to develop and define his precisionist style.
But always, Demuth came home. Lancaster was where he painted and it was certainly where he found his inspiration.
By leaving, he found a different lens to focus on when he came back, a new appreciation of his hometown.
And Lancaster was no back water. It fit right into that uniquely American idea that so many artists were exploring.
"Lancaster was a hustling, busting place," Lampe says. "It was a very of the moment city."
In his most iconic and important works, Demuth embraced the industrialism of the city, the buildings and businesses that were bringing the city into the 20th century.
As Lampe notes, for all his travels to the most sophisticated cities of the world, Demuth always came home.
"Lancaster was his ultimate destination."
"Demuth's Destinations"Opening reception, Fri. 5-7 p.m.Cont. through Aug. 30Tues.-Sat. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. (Closed July 4)Sun. 1-4 p.m. Admission by donation120 E. King St. (rear), 299-9940www.demuth.org E-mail:
jholahan@lnpnews.com
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