查尔斯·希勒认领

Water depicts one of the power generators built by the Tennessee Valley Authority in the 1930s, when hydroelectric power was being distributed throughout the Tennessee River region of the United States. Sheeler's experience as a photographer influenced his Precisionist style of painting, in which he emphasized the geometric shapes of objects in a hard-edged, clearly lit manner. For Sheeler, these monumental, streamlined forms signified human ingenuity in harnessing nature's power. His interpretation of American industry was somewhat idealized: workers are never shown, and the machinery is pristine and gleaming, free of any dirt or smoke. Sheeler expressed his feelings about the emotional symbolism of technology when he wrote: "Every age manifests itself by some external evidence. In a period such as ours when only a comparatively few individuals seem to be given to religion, some form other than the Gothic cathedral must be found. Industry concerns the greatest numbers—it may be true, as has been said, that our factories are our substitute for religious expression" (quoted in Constance Rourke, Charles Sheeler: Artist in the American Tradition, 1938).

Charles Sheeler visited California for the first time in 1954, to attend a retrospective exhibition of his art at the Art Galleries of the University of California at Los Angeles. He also traveled to San Francisco, where he took photographs of the city's streets and landmarks. These included the Golden Gate Bridge, the famous suspension bridge that extends more than 4,000 feet across the entrance to the San Francisco Bay. Sheeler executed this painting in early 1955, working from his photographs, at his home in Irvington, New York. His evocation of the bridge is partially abstract, due to its simplified forms, heightened color palette, and extreme viewpoint. In addition, Sheeler may have devised the composition by superimposing two photographic negatives at a slight overlap. Golden Gate conveys the sensation of passing along the bridge, beneath its towers and suspension cables; the further tower rises like a ladder, with its cross-spans suggesting "rungs" against an intensely blue sky.This late work by Sheeler is at once a formal experiment, a tribute to a specific landmark, and a more generalized symbol of travel and opportunity. In a letter to Robert Beverly Hale, curator of American paintings at the Metropolitan Museum, Sheeler wrote, "I hope the title 'Golden Gate' will remain, it conveys my thought. More fluid than if bridge were added, then it would be limited to be the connecting link between two dots on the map. It is an opening to wherever the spectator thinks desirable."