Photographed by Scott Wolff. Scanned from a slide. Color corrected by Pat Cagney.

White Factory

Artist Niles Spencer (American, 1893 - 1952)

Date1928

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 20 x 25 5/8 in. (50.8 x 65.1 cm)
Overall, Frame: 25 x 30 3/4 in. (63.5 x 78.1 cm)

ClassificationsModern art

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.2227

Terms

Factory
Trees
White
Black
Gray
Brown
Cubism

On View

On view

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting of several buildings against a gray sky. The buildings are crowded together so that the ground is not visible. The palette is limited to grays, black, browns and white. The only organic shapes, which stand out against the flat geometric shapes, are the clouds and a leaf-less tree on the left side.

Label TextNiles Spencer American, 1893–1952 White Factory, 1928 Oil on canvas With detachment and discipline, Niles Spencer transforms an urban landscape into a spare collection of flat shapes and patterns, a massive, man-made still life. Muted grays and browns add to the coolness and silence of this unpopulated industrial scene. Like fellow Precisionist painter Charles Sheeler, Spencer admired the purity and simplicity of factory and skyscraper architecture. The Museum of Modern Art in New York, founded in 1929, featured White Factory that same year in its first American art exhibition, celebrating Spencer and 18 other living artists. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.2227