Untitled

Untitled

Charles Sheeler

1926

ink

From the collection of Museum of Modern Art

About this work

This sketch shows buildings cut into sharp angles and stacked oddly, like a puzzle. The lines are clean and precise, with some parts overlapping in a way that doesn’t match real life. Shadows fall in straight lines, and the whole scene looks like a mix of a city and a diagram. The artist used a technique where ink is pressed onto a smooth stone, then transferred to paper—this is called lithography. It gives the image a slightly rough, sketchy feel, even though the shapes are rigid. Look up lithography next to see how this printing method works.

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