

Who We Are
What We Do
The Demuth Museum was established in 1981 to preserve and promote the art of Charles Demuth (1883-1935). As a leader of the American Modernist movement, Demuth is best known as a pioneer of the Precisionist style and a master watercolorist. Demuth's Lancaster, Pennsylvania home, now the museum, provided both inspiration and sustenance, and functioned as Demuth's permanent studio location throughout his lifetime. Heralded as a leading light among early American modernist painters, Demuth distinguished himself from his contemporaries in his profoundly-felt renderings of his native Lancaster's factories, grain elevators and churches.
Demuth's evolving style and pioneering artistic achievements, celebrated in his famous architectural works, are inseparable from his lifelong exploration and contributions in watercolor. Demuth suffered from diabetes, a debilitating disease that rendered him incapable of anything other than bed rest for periods of his life, and assisted his developments in watercolor, which was more suited to his lifestyle and was currying favor with the early modernists of the time. During the years 1914-1919, which are considered to be Demuth's most prolific, he utilized the free-flowing effects of the watercolor medium to capture his travels to New York and Provincetown. During these frequent excursions, he spent time with a group of companions, many of whom formed the cultural elite, and was exposed to the work of expatriate artists, often via exhibitions of European and American modern art in the galleries of Alfred Stieglitz. Despite his attachment to New York, Demuth consistently returned to Lancaster and painted most in his home studio. He preferred to interpret what he saw literally in his own backyard, including the vegetables and flowers that were so important in his agricultural city.
Details
(717) 299-9940 | |
generalmuseummanager@gmail.com | |
Anne Lampe | |
Executive Director | |
http://www.demuth.org/ |