Art History: Sybil Andrews and Charles Demuth

Sybil Andrews' 1930 British linocut, "Winch", shows two men laboring away at an industrial task-turning a giant winch. The men are not shown as unique individuals with specific features or traits; instead they are morphed into "integral parts of the mechanism" itself and become an extension of the winch's automatic operation.

Charles Demuth's 1927 oil painting, "My Egypt", strikingly depicts "enormous concrete grain elevators" and perhaps hints at something "malevolent beneath the sparkling façade" of American industry. Despite their vastly different biographies and being at opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, both artists grappled with the rising pervasiveness of industry. More specifically, Andrews and Demuth take a similar approach-both celebrating the power and allure of industry, while also putting the viewer ill at ease with this extraordinary and at times inhuman influence. It could be said that Demuth's pessimism is markedly heavier than Andrews' uncertainty-her vibrant linocut makes the organizational might of industry appear, in fact, desirable.

For Andrews' "Winch", the most obvious way in which the work celebrates industry is the very rhythm of the piece. The vorticism and dynamism, the orange spiraling outward, beckons the viewer to look both at the central image of the winch and at the outermost edges of the linocut. If it weren't for their black and turquoise coloration, the two men could easily be mistaken for a part of the orange spiral. Their heads are reduced to little more than symbols of movement; their arms no different in color or consistency from the winch they are laboring over. There is an explosion of color around the comparatively bleak winch itself. A solid black "floor" at the bottom frames the work and provides further contrast for the mechanistic orange spirals.

Demuth's "My Egypt" is hardly so ecstatic in its view of industry. The artist returned to his home of Lancaster as late stage diabetes ravaged his body, and in this light he viewed his Pennsylvania hometown as "a source of both strength and frustration" according to some. The grain elevators are magnificent in their own way, as Demuth wants them to remind us of ancient Egypt's grandeur. Of course, the pyramids were built by slaves-Charles Demuth's rural working town is seen in a less glamorous light, perhaps. He nicknamed Lancaster "the province" because it could be seen as an outmoded and difficult way of life there, even as the town had some degree of solitude to offer.

Andrews' modernist enthusiasm for industry is considerably greater. There is almost a tribal element to the spiral's explosive design-the anonymity of industrial labor produces a monotonous, yet unified "tribe" of workers. Although this is a generalization that may not entirely convey Andrews' main fascinations as an artist. The winch clearly exemplifies the dominance of the machine age, but according to some her greatest fascination was "the rhythm of the human figure, engaged in either work or sport". Her linocuts emphasize the struggle and sheer energy exerted by man in order to build and maintain his new mechanized world. She isn't interested in the winch; she is interested in those who would build it, those who would turn it.

Human forms in "My Egypt", on the other hand, are conspicuously absent. We see only the grain elevators and the unnatural lines of architecture, smokestack, and slightly askew windows. The windows are all dark-we cannot tell if anyone is inside peering out at us or not. The painting itself is divided and subdivided by even more unnatural lines-the lines emerge from the top left and run down to the bottom right of the painting, as if an ungodly highway has been constructed in the sky.

Not only are people absent from "My Egypt", but the architecture and technology wreaks subtle chaos-we are disoriented, irritated, afraid-even though we know more or less exactly what these objects are. This is in stark contrast to the winch, which is a vortex of order and an instrument of both might and precision. All of the gear's teeth have to line up just so or the men will not be able to turn the winch any further. Demuth's sky is also unnatural; it has been co-opted by the surrounding architectural chaos. The painting is divided and then divided again, just as factories divide tasks into increasingly smaller and specified repeatable motions. And just as American industry can arbitrarily divide land and resources, Demuth arbitrarily slices the canvas into many angled discontinuities. The effect is unsettling.

"Winch" does not want the view to be unsettled so much as in awe of the tribal cadence brought about by a single relatively simple machine. If Demuth's industry has the capacity to divide and disturb, Andrews' machines have the power to unite and provide greater meaning. All are focused on a single task, a single outcome. It is possibly no accident that Andrews uses linocuts-a reproduceable, fast medium-to depict this world of reproduceable and fast machines. Where Andrews sees brightly colored progress marching forward, Demuth can see only illness and obscurity. In fact, the painting's skewed angles are reminiscent of Van Gogh's skewed angles and "unhealthy" geometry.

In conclusion, "My Egypt" is the work of a man overwhelmed by disease and the increasingly alienating landscape of large, nondescript grain elevators, factories, warehouses. "Winch" is an anthem for this new age, created using a newer and more "precise" medium. No two oil paintings are alike, but hundreds of "Winch" linocuts could find their audience around the world, while remaining more or less exactly the same.

The grain elevators in Demuth's Pennsylvania "province" were the technology of stagnation and stinginess-storing the grain until it could be shipped elsewhere at a profit. The winch, on the other hand, is a device of pure dynamism, always in motion and powerless only at the moment it stops turning.

Sources:

ArtRepublic, http://www.artrepublic.com/prints/11852-winch-giclee-limited-edition-of-850.html

Whitney Museum / American Voices, http://www.whitney.org/www/american_voices/530/index.html

Traditional Fine Arts Organization, http://www.tfaoi.org/aa/8aa/8aa7.htm

IFPDA, http://www.ifpda.org/content/node/100