Dahlias and Asters 1912

Charles Sheeler made this painting of Dahlias and Asters with oil on canvas, and there’s a real sense of him working through something. I mean, look at how the paint is applied – kind of scrubby and intuitive, not trying to be too precise. There’s a kind of blockiness to the vase and the background and the way Sheeler has used the paint creates a really interesting surface. Like, check out the way he’s handled the flowers themselves – the little dashes and dabs of color, all fighting for space, pushing and pulling each other around. And that one red flower right at the top – the way it almost bleeds into the darker background. There is something so physical about it. He was clearly interested in how we see the world. It feels like a conversation with someone like Marsden Hartley, who was also playing with similar ideas about form and color, although in a totally different way. What is clear is that there are no right answers.