Arthur Beecher CarlesAmerican, 1882–1952Calla Lilies
May one see it?
Not receiving at present
Chicago, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
In 1922, Arthur B. Carles began a series of calla lily paintings, using the flowers’ stark shapes as the basis for formal experiments into color and surface. Calla lilies were of particular interest to Carles’s fellow modernists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Charles Demuth, and Marsden Hartley because of their sexual connotations, which these artists frequently exaggerated or exploited. Carles’s Calla Lilies does not appear to carry any erotic overtones but instead is restrained in color and almost classically composed. Carles played with the effects of light and shadow on the curving shapes of the blossoms, contrasting the firmly modeled white flowers with the more loosely painted background. These juxtapositions expressed his fascination with the play of space in his compositions, and he likened the deliberate intervals between the flowers to the rhythmic qualities of music.
Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0
Particulars
- Accession number
- 2008.183
In the catalog
Sources
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Image: Art Institute of Chicago — © the artist or rights holder
![Studies of a Female Nude [recto], Arthur Beecher Carles, c. 1910s](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/ecb95b2c-99bd-48ad-a438-de5d3437200b/full/!2400,2400/0/default.jpg)
![Female Nude [verso], Arthur Beecher Carles, c. 1910s](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/7b6016ba-beab-451a-a53a-4e570d700572/full/!2400,2400/0/default.jpg)
