Charles Demuth (American, 1883–1935)
Spring
INV-7437
Charles Demuth (American, 1883–1935)1921
ModernismCubismoil on canvaspainting
Date
1921
Medium
Oil and graphite on canvas
Dimensions
56.2 × 61.3 cm (22 1/8 × 24 1/8 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Through prior gift of the Albert Kunstadter Family Foundation
In Spring Charles Demuth depicted the sample cards used by textile manufacturers to advertise new spring fabrics. Pablo Picasso was the first to create such painted collages—a practice called Synthetic Cubism. Although Demuth saw examples of the style in both New York and Paris, he only experimented with it once, in this work. The subject allowed him to construct an ideal modernist painting by using overlapping planes that align with the canvas’s flatness. The sample cards also connect his picture to everyday concerns. By titling his painting Spring, Demuth highlighted the new reality of American life, in which the changing of seasons was heralded not by nature but by commerce.
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