Charles Sheeler Barns Collection

Charles Sheeler, Barn Abstraction, 1917, chalk on paper, 14 1/8 x 19 1/2 in., collection: Phila Museum

Speaking of Doylestown,

I was so immediately in love with the precisionist paintings, and the dramatic photos, that it took me a while to appreciate the late, semi-abstract barn paintings of Charles Sheeler.

Charles Sheeler, Bucks County Barn, 1915, gelatin silver print, sheet 10×8 in. mounted on 18×14 in., from a $10 edition of 10 made for sale at MoMA in 1941, and sold at Christie’s in 2012

It was probably the early photos from Doylestown and Bucks County that opened it up for me, and realizing that the barns were not late and out, but early and the whole point.

installation view of Barn Abstraction, 1917, in Charles Sheeler, Oct. 1939, The Museum of Modern Art, photo: Beaumont Newhall

I mean, making a drawing like Barn Abstraction in 1917 is kind of amazing. This one, at the Philadelphia Museum, because it was owned by the Arensbergs, was literally the first work in Sheeler’s 1939 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. It feels like Sheeler was in his Morton Schamberg era, in a good way.

Charles Sheeler, Barn Abstraction, 1918, lithograph, sheet: abt 19 1/2 x 24 1/2 in., selling at Christie’s 23 Oct 2024

In 1918 Sheeler used the drawing as the basis for his first print, a lithograph, of which maybe ten copies exist? That’s the number MoMA uses, and it’s cited in the lot description for the example being sold tomorrow at Christie’s. It’s the first of five Sheeler prints being sold—he only made six, and they’re all low volume.

Installation view of Charles Sheeler at MoMA in 1939, showing Upper Deck, 1929, from the Fogg, and American Landscape, 1930, from MoMA, photo by Beaumont Newhall

But that’s all less important than this installation photo from MoMA’s 1939 show, in which two of Sheeler’s precisionist masterpieces—Upper Deck (1929) and American Landscape (1930)—look like they’ve been reworked into a resin pour by Anicka Yi. What would Sheeler do with a painting of this photo? Is that even possible?