At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism

May 7, 2022–Feb 26, 2023

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Born 1877 in Lewiston, ME
Died 1943 in Ellsworth, ME

Marsden Hartley traveled to Europe in 1912 and settled in Paris, where he quickly assimilated the fractured forms of Cubism and the vivid colors of Fauvism. A year later, he relocated to Berlin, where he became enthralled with the city’s crowds, gay subculture, and military pageantry. Shortly after World War I broke out, Karl von Freyburg, a German officer in the Royal Guards with whom Hartley was in love, was killed. Devastated by this loss, Hartley juxtaposed images he associated with Freyburg, including German imperial flags, military emblems, fragments of the Royal Guards’ uniforms, and a chessboard, to create abstract portraits of him. By the time Hartley completed Painting, Number 5, the series had become as much of an abstract evocation of the German military and the tragic cost of war as a specific memorial to Freyburg.

Sketchy color blocks resembling flags and badges hectically cover the canvas.

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At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism

Marsden Hartley

18

Painting, Number 5, 1914–15

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At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism

Marsden Hartley

18

Painting, Number 5, 1914–15

Artists

Explore works from this exhibition in the Whitney's collection

Explore works from this exhibition
in the Whitney's collection