Big City, Charles Marshall

Artwork Overview

1905–1992
Big City, 1958
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: watercolor; graphite
Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 33.2 x 48.6 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 13 1/16 x 19 1/8 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 38.2 x 53.3 cm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 15 1/16 x 21 0.9843 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 20 x 25 in
Credit line: Gift of Charles L. Marshall
Accession number: 1992.0137
Not on display

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Images

Label texts

Spencer Museum of Art Highlights
Charles Marshall, a native of Atchison, Kansas, studied architecture at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, where he was introduced to the art of watercolor. He remained an active watercolorist and printmaker throughout his career as Assistant State Architect (1935–1945) and State Architect (1945–1952). Big City is one of the relatively few abstract experiments Marshall attempted in the 1950s. There are a small number of other modernist color and collage drawings in his sketchbooks of the same period.
Google Art Project
Charles Marshall, a native of Atchison, Kansas, studied architecture at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, where he was introduced to the art of watercolor. He remained an active watercolorist and printmaker throughout his career as Assistant State Architect (1935–1945) and State Architect (1945–1952). Big City is one of the relatively few abstract experiments Marshall attempted in the 1950s. There are a small number of other modernist color and collage drawings in his sketchbooks of the same period.
Bold colors like red, green, and blue, as well as geometric shapes create this abstract cityscape. The rectangles standing in the center of the image look like buildings packed together, and the diagonal lines create a feeling of action and movement. Are those birds in the sky? Kansas artist Charles Marshall called his painting Big City. How does the title fit this scene?
Exhibition Label: "Charles Marshall, Artist on Site," Jun-2001, Cori Sherman Big City is one of the relatively few abstract experiments Marshall attempted in the 1950s. There are a small number of other modernist color and collage drawings in his sketchbooks of the same period.

Exhibitions

Cori Sherman, curator
2001