ARTHUR BEECHER CARLES (1882-1952)
The Red Shawl, n.d.
Oil on canvas
21 ¼ x 18 ¼ inches
Unsigned
Framed
Arthur B. Carles was born in Pennsylvania, and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1900 and 1907. He studied with Thomas Pollock Anshutz, Hugh Breckenridge, Henry McCarter, Cecilia Beaux, and William Merritt Chase. In 1907 he traveled to France where he remained until 1910. In France, he greatly admired the works of Cézanne and Matisse, and became close friends with John Marin and Eduard Steichen. He displayed six landscapes in the Salon d'Automne of 1908.
In March 1910 his work was included in the “Younger American Painters” show held at Alfred Stieglitz’s New York gallery, 291. Stieglitz gave Carles his first one-man show at 291 in January 1912.
Often considered a forerunner of the Abstract Expressionists, Carles combined an enthusiasm for color with the formal principles of Cubism. Educated as a figurative painter, he moved towards abstraction after a trip to Europe that exposed him to the major movements in modernism. Drawing influence from Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and later Hans Hofmann, he painted canvases that hint at colorful landscapes and figures behind their fragmented Cubist planes. Late in his career he started to work in a purer abstraction, leaving any remnants of representation behind.
He returned to France from June to October 1912 and exhibited at the 1912 Salon d'Automne. After his return to America he exhibited at the Armory Show of 1913. He taught at the Pennsylvania Academy in Philadelphia from 1917 to 1925 and taught privately afterwards.
Often considered a forerunner of the Abstract Expressionists, Carles combined an enthusiasm for color with the formal principles of Cubism. Educated as a figurative painter, he moved towards abstraction after a trip to Europe that exposed him to the major movements in modernism. Drawing influence from Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and later Hans Hofmann, he painted canvases that hint at colorful landscapes and figures behind their fragmented Cubist planes. Late in his career he started to work in a purer abstraction, leaving any remnants of representation behind.
His later years were marked by bouts of alcoholism. In December 1941 he suffered a stroke that left him an invalid until his death in 1952. His daughter Mercedes Matter, also an artist and the founder of the New York Studio School, was married to photographer and designer Herbert Matter.
