Spencer's customary subjects were the industrial edifices of factories, mills, and powerhouses. However, he also displayed a fascination with the interstices and transitional points of cities, such as bridges, rooftops, and the gaps between buildings. Erie Underpass, a late work, was painted while the artist was living in Dingmans Ferry, a town on the Delaware River in Pennsylvania. (The title is a reference to the Erie Railroad, which ran through the region.) Working in an even more rigorous variant of his Precisionist style, he transformed this purely functional structure into a bold visual abstraction. His extreme flattening of its forms results in ambiguous spatial relations between the elements of this structure: the staircase seems disconnected from the platform, and nothing is visible through the dark, arched openings of the underpass.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Erie Underpass
Artist:Niles Spencer (American, Pawtucket, Rhode Island 1893–1952 Dingman's Ferry, Pennsylvania)
Date:1949
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:28 × 36 in. (71.1 × 91.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1950
Accession Number:50.31.3
Inscription: Signed (lower left): NILES SPENCER
[Downtown Gallery, New York, 1949–50; sold to MMA]
New York. Downtown Gallery. "American Art, 1949: New Paintings and Sculpture by Leading American Artists," October 3–22, 1949, no. 22.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "1949 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting," December 16, 1949–February 5, 1950, no. 138.
Lincoln. University of Nebraska, Morrill Hall. "Nebraska Art Association 60th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art," March 5–April 2, 1950, no. 111.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "20th Century Painters: A Special Exhibition of Oils, Water Colors and Drawings Selected from the Collections of American Art in the Metropolitan Museum," June 16–October 29, 1950, unnum. brochure (p. 11).
Minneapolis. University Gallery, University of Minnesota. "40 American Painters, 1940–1950," June 4–August 30, 1951, no. 72.
New York. Downtown Gallery. "Niles Spencer: Paintings," October 28–November 15, 1952, no. 4.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Niles Spencer: A Retrospective Exhibition," June 23–August 15, 1954, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Columbia Bicentennial Exhibition," October 28, 1954–April 18, 1955, no catalogue.
Minneapolis. Walker Art Center. "The Precisionist View in American Art," November 13–December 25, 1960, unnumbered cat. (p. 58).
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "The Precisionist View in American Art," January 24–February 28, 1961, unnumbered cat.
Detroit Institute of Arts. "The Precisionist View in American Art," March 21–April 23, 1961, unnumbered cat.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The Precisionist View in American Art," May 17–June 18, 1961, unnumbered cat.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The Precisionist View in American Art," June 30–August 6, 1961, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Three Centuries of American Painting," April 9–October 17, 1965, unnum. checklist.
Lexington. University of Kentucky Art Gallery. "Niles Spencer," October 10–November 6, 1965, no. 106.
Utica, N. Y. Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute. "Niles Spencer," November 16–December 19, 1965, no. 106.
Portland, Me. Portland Museum of Art. "Niles Spencer," January 6–30, 1966, no. 106.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Niles Spencer," February 8–March 6, 1966, no. 106.
Allentown, Penn. Allentown Art Museum. "Niles Spencer," March 15–April 8, 1966, no. 106.
Manchester, N. H. Currier Gallery of Art. "Niles Spencer," April 15–May 8, 1966, no. 106.
Providence. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. "Niles Spencer," May 20–June 12, 1966, no. 106.
Philadelphia. Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. "The Highway," January 14–February 25, 1970.
Houston. Institute for the Fine Arts, Rice University. "The Highway," March 12–May 18, 1970.
Akron Art Institute. "The Highway," June 5–July 26,1970.
Huntington, N.Y. Heckscher Museum. "Windows and Doors," January 30–March 19, 1972, no. 50.
Southampton, N. Y. Parrish Art Museum. "Twentieth Century American Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 25–December 31, 1977, no. 8.
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. "La Peinture Américaine au 20e Siècle de la Collection du Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 28–August 23, 1978, no. 8 (as "Tunnel Sous Le Canal Erie").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Tribute to a Curator: Robert Beverly Hale," November 16, 1978–March 4, 1979, extended to March 18, 1979, unnum. checklist.
Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux. "Profil du Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York: de Ramsès à Picasso," May 15–September 1, 1981, no. 228.
Munich. Haus der Kunst. "Amerikanische Malerei 1930-1980," November 14, 1981–January 31, 1982, no. 40.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selection One: Twentieth-Century Art," February 1–April 30, 1985, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Painting: 1905–1950," April 19–October 7, 1991, no catalogue.
Oxford, England. Ashmolean Museum. "America's Cool Modernism: O'Keeffe to Hopper," March 23–July 22, 2018, no. 72.
Howard Devree. "Out of Our Times." New York Times (October 9, 1949), p. X9, ill.
Robert Beverly Hale. 100 American Painters of the 20th Century: Works Selected from the Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1950, ill. p. 102.
Helen Mary Hayes. "Deviation from Style Certain to Impress Art Exhibit Viewer." Nebraska State Journal (March 5, 1950), p. 20.
Holger Cahill. "Niles Spencer." Magazine of Art 45 (November 1952), pp. 314–15, ill.
Howard Devree. "Disciplined Art: Paintings by French Nineteenth Century Masters, Leger and Spencer Shown." New York Times (November 2, 1952), p. X9.
"Niles Spencer, 58, Painted Industry." New York Times (May 17, 1952), p. 19.
Carlyle Burrows. "Art: Exhibit by Spencer." New York Herald Tribune (November 2, 1952), p. D7.
Dorothy Grafly. "The Weathervane: Two Centuries of American Painting." American Artist 18 (April 1954), p. 66.
Dorothy C. Miller inNew Art in America: Fifty Painters of the 20th Century. Ed. John I. H. Baur. Greenwich, Conn., 1957, ill. p. 107.
Henry Geldzahler. American Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York, 1965, pp. 140–41, ill.
David L. Shirey. "'Windows and Doors' on View at Heckscher." New York Times (February 20, 1972), p. A16.
Helen A. Harrison. Twentieth Century American Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Parrish Art Museum. Southampton, N. Y., 1977, p. 17, no. 8, ill.
Helen A. Harrison inLa Peinture Américaine au 20e Siècle de la Collection du Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. Brussels, 1978, unpaginated, no. 8, ill., reprints Ref. Harrison 1977.
William S. Lieberman inProfil du Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York: de Ramsès à Picasso. Exh. cat., Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux. Bordeaux, 1981, pp. 176–77, no. 228, ill.
Lowery S. Sims inProfil du Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York: de Ramsès à Picasso. Exh. cat., Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux. Bordeaux, 1981, p. 166.
Ellsworth Kelly (American, Newburgh, New York 1923–2015 Spencertown, New York)
1977
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