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Show focuses on media connections
'Charles Sheeler: Across Media,' at the National Gallery of Art in Washington through Aug. 27, explores the American artist's focus on the relationship between different media
Date published: 6/22/2006
By SHEILA WICKOUSKI For THE FREE LANCE-STAR "Charles Sheeler: Across Media," on view at the National Gallery of Art through Aug. 27, gives viewers a lot to wonder about. Unlike recent retrospectives of the American modernist and photographer, the NGA exhibit has focused on exploring the complex relationships among Sheeler's photography, film, painting and drawing. While the show is about the artist, it also serves as a lesson on how these varying media affect the visual interpretation of an image. The chronological arrangement of the exhibit takes viewers on a journey through Sheeler's career and the themes of his work. Starting with his famous 1917 photos taken inside an 18th-century house in Doylestown, Pa., one can trace the evolution of his art. A marvel at precision, Sheeler used his early training in industrial drawing and decorative painting to make these early pieces admirable technical works. The influence of the European modernists he met in his brief time in Paris, his regard for the work of James Abbott McNeill Whistler and his experience as a professional photographer all come through. But something else is key to the approach of this particular exhibit. For those who harbor questions about the distinctions between painting, drawing, photography and film, Sheeler's work gives one artist's exploration of possibilities. The cubistic lines, and the nuances of white, gray and black, are evident in his photographs, his charcoals and drawings, and his paintings. His work includes more than the lines and shadows of specific images, such as a door or a stove in an early American house, the Ford Motor Company plant or New York City skyscrapers. Sheeler's images also portray what he sees in his surroundings, what is natural in his world. He is a master technician of the powers and distinctions of each medium. Using charcoal for drawing is as old as cavemen, while moving picture cameras were new to the 20th century. Since photographs are created by mechanical means and seem to be representations of reality, the mind easily suspends the possibility that the artist has deliberately set up the scene. Painters have a set of tools, a palette of colors, a choice of paints. Like photographers, they choose between abstract and realistic portraits and landscapes. And what all of the visual arts share is the power to convey emotions and ideas without words.
Date published: 6/22/2006
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