{"data":{"id":"344","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":344,"topgoose_id":2372,"tms_id":344,"display_name":"Charles Demuth","sort_name":"Demuth Charles","display_date":"1883–1935","begin_date":"1883","end_date":"1935","biography":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1927 Charles Demuth commenced a\nseries of ambitious oil paintings that\ndepict industrial architecture in his native\nLancaster, Pennsylvania. In\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/635\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eMy Egypt\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e he portrays the concrete grain elevator of the John W. Eshelman Feed Company, constructed in 1919. Composed using crisp lines and flat planes of color, the painting is an early example of the Precisionist style, which celebrated the expansion of American industry after World War I. The majestic structure, bathed in overlapping shafts of light, epitomizes American achievement—a modern-day equivalent, as the title suggests, of the pyramids of ancient Egypt. While linked to national themes, \u003cem\u003eMy Egypt\u003c/em\u003e is nonetheless infused with personal meaning. Ailing with diabetes, Demuth was increasingly confined to his family’s home in Lancaster— far from the sophisticated milieu he had frequently enjoyed in New York. By designating the image \u003cem\u003ehis\u003c/em\u003e Egypt, Demuth links Lancaster to the Biblical connotation of Egypt as a site of involuntary bondage, while also summoning the pyramid’s symbolic association with life after death.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDespite his success working\nin oil, watercolor was Demuth’s favored\nmedium. His watercolors often suggest\nan underground sexual freedom and\nlicentiousness, subjects that must have\nhad particular resonance for the artist\nas a homosexual in a largely inhospitable\nculture.\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/581\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eDistinguished Air\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, inspired by a short story by the American writer Robert McAlmon, portrays a woman in a provocative evening dress and two couples, one homosexual and the other heterosexual. All are at an art exhibition, viewing Constantin Brancusi’s famous sculpture \u003cem\u003ePrincess X\u003c/em\u003e (1915–16), whose phallic form the artist humorously accentuates.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":true,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500004441","wikidata_id":"Q380494","created_at":"2017-08-30T17:20:29.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-13T07:01:42.095-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/344/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/344/exhibitions"}}}}