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Art Institute of Chicago

Western Industrial

Charles Sheeler

1955

Attribution
Charles Sheeler American, 1883–1965
Medium
Oil on canvas
Physical dimensions
58 × 73.5 cm (22 7/8 × 29 in.)
Credit line
Gift of Mary and Leigh Block
CATALOGUE RECORD

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Source rights statement: Public-domain image eligibility not established by this export

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From the museum

Often associated with the American artistic group known as the Precisionists, Charles Sheeler was both a painter and a photographer. This late work, Western Industrial , depicts the Inland Steel plant in East Chicago, Indiana. Evident here is the artist’s interest in line and overlapping shapes, his restrained painting style, and his use of subdued color. The many diagonals leading the eye to various points in the composition give the impression of an active industry; however, the plant is devoid of humans. Indeed, a critic once referred to one of Sheeler’s works as a “depopulated landscape.”

Description: Art Institute of Chicago · CC BY 4.0

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