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Demuth, Backdrop

Backdrop of East Lynne1919Tempera on board19 7/8 × 16H-261.1946University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable TrustBackdrop of East Lynne by Charles Demuth Charles DemuthCharles Demuth made his first, tentative forays into cubism while in Provincetown, Massachusetts, during the summer of 1916, perhaps inspired by the experiments of friend and fellow artist Marsden Hartley. Working in Gloucester in the summer of 1919, Demuth initiated a series of architectural paintings with high vantage points; these works maintain a remarkable balance between abstraction and realism. This experimentation is demonstrated in Backdrop of East Lynne, where shallow space is created by employing flattened, angular forms over a grid of ruler-drawn lines, suggesting at once rays of light and a multiplicity of viewpoints. American 18831935Lancaster, PALancaster, PA