Roofs and Steeple 1921

Charles Demuth made this drawing of roofs and a steeple with pencil and watercolor, and looking at it is like deciphering a dream. The way he uses these overlapping shapes and lines creates a sense of depth and distance, but it's all skewed and tilted, like a Cubist collage. There's this one dark curve on the right side, almost like a shadow or a wave, that anchors the whole composition. It’s unexpected, but it kinda holds everything together. The color palette is minimal, mostly grays and browns, with these tiny spots of red on the chimney pots which draw your eye around the image. It reminds me of some of the architectural studies by Lyonel Feininger, but there is something here about the intimacy of lived experience, of existing in the world. It feels like Demuth isn't just showing us a building; he's showing us how he sees it. And maybe how we can see it too.