Niles Spencer 1893 - 1952

The Downtown Gallery, New York
Given to the present owner by Edward Joseph Gallagher Jr. as the Edward Joseph Gallagher III Memorial Collection, 1956

Champaign, Illinois, University of Illinois, Contemporary American Painting, March-April 1952, no. 125, p. 233, illustrated pl. 33
New York, The Downtown Gallery, Niles Spencer: Paintings, October-November 1952, no. 10, illustrated on the cover
New York, The Museum of Modern Art; Akron, Ohio, Akron Art Institute; Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum; Manchester, New Hampshire, Currier Gallery of Art, Niles Spencer: A Retrospective Exhibition, June-August 1954
Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne, 50 ans d'art aux États-Unis, March-May 1955, no. 33, p. 37, illustrated pl. 10
Zürich, Kunsthaus; Barcelona, Palacio de la Virreina & Museo de Arte Moderno; Frankfurt, Haus des Deutschen Kunsthandwerks; London, Tate Gallery; The Hague, Geementemuseum; Vienna, Secession Galerie; Belgrade, Kalemegdan Pavilion, Modern Art in the U.S.A., July 1955-August 1956, no. 33 (London catalogue: pp. 17, 31, illustrated pl. 11)
New York, The Downtown Gallery, New Art in America, October-November 1957
Moscow, American National Exhibition, July-August 1959
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Paintings and Sculpture from the American National Exhibition in Moscow, October-November 1959
Lexington, Kentucky, University of Lexington; Utica, New York, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute; Portland, Maine, Portland Museum; New York, Whitney Museum of American Art; Allentown, Pennsylvania, Allentown Art Museum; Manchester, New Hampshire, Currier Gallery of Art; Providence, Rhode Island, Rhode Island School of Design; East Hampton, New York, Guild Hall, Niles Spencer, October 1965-August 1966, no. 120, p. 36, illustrated on the cover
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Art of the United States 1670 - 1966, September-November 1966, no. 262, p. 154
Katonah, New York, The Katonah Gallery, The American Scene and New Formations of Modernism 1935-1954, January-March 1976, no. 63, illustrated
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art at the Equitable Center, Niles Spencer, April-June 1990, p. 15

Painting and Sculpture in The Museum of Modern Art, 1958, p. 57 (also included in later editions)
Edwin L. Dale Jr., "Gray Flannel Bosses: Industrialism and Industrial Man," The New York Times Book Review, October 1960, p.BR46, illustrated

Very good condition. Unlined. Under UV: two small lines of inpainting at the left center edge. The varnish is uneven in some areas (also visible in raking light).
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Painted in 1951, In Fairmont exemplifies Niles Spencer's masterful Precisionist aesthetic on a monumental scale.  Executed at the height of the artist's technical maturity, In Fairmont draws upon the industrial subject matter that was the source of inspiration throughout his career.  Spencer created the image based on sketches and studies of a large ventilator at the glass works in Fairmont, West Virginia, and relates to a second oil, In Fairmont, West Virginia (Private Collection). The present work shows Spencer's sophisticated technique, and a highly refined, geometric aesthetic with a focus on simplification of form, flattened perspective, and muted tones. In the 1965 exhibition of Spencer's work, Richard Freeman wrote of these mature oils, "The paintings ... became increasingly daring and monumental. Shapes settled elegantly and irrevocably into convincing positions. The colors sang in a muted rich baritone chorus of tans, greys, rusts and greens, with occasional vivid greys and blacks giving structural drama. An almost surpressed excitement invaded what had been the lyric calm of his classicism" (Niles Spencer, 1965, p.16). In Fairmont has a distinguished exhibition history, including the prestigious 1952 exhibition "Contemporary American Painting" at the University of Illinois, and the first large retrospective exhibition of the artist's work at The Museum of Modern Art in 1954.