Stacks in Celebration

About the Art

This painting is an example of Precisionism, an American style that includes elements of European Cubism combined with an industrial or machine-like aesthetic. Here, sharply defined smokestacks pierce the kaleidoscope-patterned sky. It is a celebration of both the industrial and artistic advancements of the time.

FEATURED IMAGE
Charles Sheeler (American, 1883–1965), Stacks in Celebration, 1954, oil on canvas, 22 x 28 inches (55.9 x 71.1 cm). Museum purchase with funds provided by the Eloise Spaeth Fund, the Virginia Rike Haswell Fund by exchange, the James F. Dicke Family, Dr. and Mrs. Robert A. Goldenberg, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. DeLuca, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Roddy, Mr. and Mrs. William B. Ten Eyck, Mr. and Mrs. John W. Longstreth, Mrs. Joyce M. Bowden, Merrill Lynch & Co. Foundation, Inc., Kathy and Frank Hollingsworth, Esther Scott Carter, The Dayton Art Institute Docent Corps, and other contributors, 1998.52