The Aero

c. 1914

Marsden Hartley

Painter, American, 1877 - 1943

Layered circles and dots, crosses, checkered patterns, curved and wavy lines, and other geometric shapes in tomato red, shamrock green, buttercup yellow, royal blue, black, and bright white float against a field of unpainted canvas in this vertical, abstract painting. The shapes are most densely packed at the center of the composition. The eye is drawn to a red circle with flame-like forms at the sides and top, about three-quarters of the way up the canvas. Immediately underneath it and arcing out to our left is navy-blue band with three white, wavy lines. Other patterns to either side of the central red shape include two flag-like squares of alternating green and white stripes near two other patches containing a red and green checkered pattern. Other areas are patterned in black and yellow stripes, and blue and white stripes. Dots, lines, and lollipop-like shapes are scattered sparsely through the rest of the composition. Three shapes float near three of the corners, not touching anything in the layered, central portion: a red circle within a yellow ring at the upper right; a red dot at the lower left; and a red cross at the lower right. The frame was painted by the artist in the same colors as the canvas, with bands of color separating dots, crosses, and the lollipop-like form.
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Completed in 1914, The Aero may have been the painting that Marsden Hartley described in a letter to his dealer, Alfred Stieglitz, the previous year: “I have one canvas ‘Extase d’Aéroplane’ if it must have a title—it is my notion of the possible ecstasy or soul state of an aéroplane if it could have one.” The artist was thrilled when he saw zeppelins, or huge airships, flying overhead. Both Europeans and Americans keenly followed advances in aviation, and Germany was swept by “zeppelin fever.” In the years leading up to the outbreak of World War I, potential rivals were concerned that Germany would build an air fleet capable of bombarding its enemies and transporting troops to distant places, even New York City. Yet Hartley did not address the potential danger; instead he presents an exuberant interpretation of one of the greatest inventions of the modern era.

Hartley lived in Berlin from May 1913 to December 1915, a period interrupted only by a four-month trip to New York from November 1913 to March 1914. Hartley’s imagery from this time has been widely acknowledged as constituting one of the most original new visual languages of modern art that emerged during the first two decades of the 20th century. Hartley combined the influences of fauvism, cubism, and German expressionism with his own mystical vision to create colorful abstract compositions that reflect his fascination with modern life in Berlin, especially the German military. The Aero is an energetic, colorful abstract painting that registers the influences of avant-garde art movements and alludes to one of the most revolutionary technological advances of the time.

On View

East Building Upper Level, Gallery 415-A

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 100.3 x 81.2 cm (39 1/2 x 31 15/16 in.)
    framed: 106.7 x 87.7 cm (42 x 34 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1970.31.1

More About this Artwork

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Scholarly Article:  American Paintings, 1900–1945: The Aero, c. 1914

This nearly square painting shows an industrial area with buildings, storage silos, a smokestack, and railroad tracks. A mound of brown dirt or other material is in shadow in the lower left corner of the painting. Next to the mound, railroad tracks extend diagonally from the lower center of the painting into the distance to our right. The tracks end at a white building with staggered gray rooflines to our right in the distance. A tall terracotta-red smokestack rises high beyond the white building, smoke pouring out of its top and blending into the clouds above. Just beyond the mound of dirt, piles of white material, perhaps in unseen bins, line the railroad track to our left and lead back to a row ten interconnected, coral-orange silos. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting, and it is lined with a row of long white and gray warehouses. The artist signed and dated the work with brown paint in the lower right corner: “Sheeler 31.”

Scholarly Series:  American Paintings, 1900–1945

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist [1877-1943]; (sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, 17 May 1921, probably no. 46, as Pre-War Pageant); Hamilton Easter Field [1873-1922], Brooklyn, and Ogunquit, Maine; bequest to Robert Laurent [1890-1970], Brooklyn, and Ogunquit, Maine; his estate; purchased 15 October 1970 by NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1916

  • [Marsden Hartley exhibition], 291 Gallery, New York, 1916.

1951

  • Marsden Hartley, John Herron Art Museum (now the Indianapolis Museum of Art), 1951, no. 1, as The Aero, Pre-War.

1965

  • The Collection of Robert and Mimi Laurent and the Field Foundation Collection, Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington; Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, Maine, 1965, no. 37.

1969

  • Marsden Hartley: A Retrospective Exhibition, Bernard Danenberg Galleries, Inc., New York, 1969, no. 6, repro.

1980

  • Marsden Hartley, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth; University Art Museum, Berkeley, 1980-1981, no. 22, pl. 80.

1995

  • Dictated by Life: Marsden Hartley's German Paintings and Robert Indiana's Hartley Elegies, Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis; Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago; Art Museum at Florida International University, 1995, no. 2, repro. (shown only in Minneapolis).

1996

  • Abstraction in the Twentieth Century: Total Risk, Freedom, Discipline, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1996, no. 57, repro.

2001

  • Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2001, no. 69, repro.

2003

  • Marsden Hartley: American Modernist, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, 2003-2004, no. 15, repro.

2014

  • Marsden Hartley: The German Paintings 1913-1915, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2014, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1979

  • Levin, Gail. “Hidden Symbolism in Marsden Hartley’s Military Pictures.” Arts Magazine 54 (October 1979): 158, fig. 8.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 170, repro.

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 17, no. 57, color repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 215, color repro. 217.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 574, no. 879, color repro.

1988

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 174, no. 64, color repro.

  • Scott, Gail R. Marsden Hartley. New York, 1988: 46-49, pl. 34.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 194, repro.

1997

  • Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA: One Hundred Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. St. Louis, 1997: 190-191, 215, color repro.

2000

  • Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001: no. 69.

  • Kirsh, Andrea, and Rustin S. Levenson. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. Materials and Meaning in the Fine Arts 1. New Haven, 2000: 250-251, color fig. 261.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 410-411, no. 343, color repro.

2014

  • Scholz, Dieter, ed. Marsden Hartley: The German Paintings 1913-1915 Exh. cat. Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Berlin, Los Angeles, and New York, 2014: 95 repro., 205.

2016

  • National Gallery of Art. Highlights from the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Washington, 2016: 278, repro.

2018

  • Driscoll, John. "Marsden Hartley: Pre-War Pageant." In Impressionist and Modern Art, Evening Auction. Sotheby's New York, 12 November 2018, "Property from the Collection of Ed and Deborah Shein," lot 28: 194, color repro. as comprative fig.

Wikidata ID

Q20191801

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