Big City

Charles Marshall

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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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

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.