LANCASTER, PA.- The Demuth Museum will celebrate its twenty-five year history with the exhibition 25 Years of the Demuth: Homage and Hurrah!, on view September 15 – November 30, 2006. The exhibition explores the evolution of Demuth’s work, from rare childhood sketchbooks and early paintings made while a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to the major themes of his Modernist works in the early decades of the 20th century. Among the subjects depicted by Demuth in his masterful watercolors as well as in oil and tempera are: portraits, landscapes and beach scenes, architecturals, nightclub and vaudeville scenes, florals and still lifes. The exhibition showcases the Demuth Museum’s permanent collection along with loaned pieces from museums and private collections, many returning to Lancaster for the first time since the 1950’s.

The city of Lancaster provided Demuth with both artistic inspiration and personal refuge and it is where the artist created the vast majority of his works. Yet Lancaster was also a counterpoint to his engagement with an international community of artists and a cosmopolitan life in New York City and Paris. Highlights of 25 Years of the Demuth include several watercolor works depicting scenes of the New York nightclubs and cafés frequented by Demuth and his fellow artists including At Marshall’s, 1915, The Waiters at the Brevoort, ca. 1915 and At the Golden Swan, 1919.

The exhibition also explores Demuth’s mastery of the watercolor medium as well as the artist’s evolution toward his Precisionist style in a diverse selection of floral and still life works. Highlights of the Demuth Museum’s collection including Pink Tulips, 1930 will be featured along with several unique loaned works. Kiss Me Over the Fence, 1929 depicts an unusual plant/weed found in Demuth’s mother’s Victorian garden, seen from a window in the artist’s studio, which he called his “chateau in the province.” Two Pears and Three Apples, ca. 1929 is a double-sided piece in which Demuth applied Precisionist style and technique to this subject matter.

The Demuth, a non-profit organization established in 1981, operates the restored home and studio of world-renowned artist Charles Demuth (1883-1935) as the Demuth Museum in the heart of downtown Lancaster. The Demuth owns more than 25 original Charles Demuth works in its permanent collection. Demuth was one of America’s early modernist artists; his paintings of architectural views, floral and still life subjects are in the collections of major museums throughout the world. All exhibits are supported in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts. The Demuth Museum is also supported by a grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.