Incantation
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Object Label
Charles Sheeler saw the modern equivalent of the imposing religious architecture of the past in the expansive, streamlined masses of factory buildings and refineries. Incantation, whose very title sounds like a spiritual evocation, is a fragmentary view of a continuous-flow oil production plant. Here Sheeler reduced the architectural forms to a more two-dimensional design in which shadows play as weighty a role as the metal tanks and pipes. The lack of a human presence suggests the degree to which these vast plants had come to be viewed as nearly autonomous forces.
Caption
Charles Sheeler American, 1883–1965. Incantation, 1946. Oil on canvas, 24 1/8 x 20 1/8 in. (61.3 x 51.1 cm) frame: 32 3/4 x 38 3/4 x 3 in. (83.2 x 98.4 x 7.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund and John B. Woodward Memorial Fund, 49.67. Orphaned work (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 49.67_PS20.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Incantation
Date
1946
Medium
Oil on canvas
Classification
Dimensions
24 1/8 x 20 1/8 in. (61.3 x 51.1 cm) frame: 32 3/4 x 38 3/4 x 3 in. (83.2 x 98.4 x 7.6 cm)
Signatures
Signed and dated lower right: "Sheeler -- 1946"
Credit Line
Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund and John B. Woodward Memorial Fund
Accession Number
49.67
Rights
Orphaned work
After diligent research, the Museum is unable to locate contact information for the artist or artist's estate, or there are no known living heirs.Copyright for this work may be controlled by the artist, the artist's estate, or other rights holders. A more detailed analysis of its rights history may, however, place it in the public domain. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
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