The Figure 5 in Gold
1928
The Great Figure
by William Carlos Williams
Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city.
Charles Demuth was one of the major painters in the Precisionist movement or, an alternate name that rather aptly describes the style, Cubist Realism. Perhaps the most famous piece in the movement, and the nearest to abstraction the movement came, is the The Figure 5 in Gold, which was inspired by that famous poem, posted above, by WCW, a friend of Demuth. Also, Demuth is renowned for his Expressionist watercolors, which are extremely well stylized, and are often preferred to his more famous Precisionist paintings.
Man and Woman, Provincetown
1934
Modern Conveniences
1921
Red-Roofed Houses
1917
In Vaudeville: The Green Dancer
1916
My Egypt
1927
