Charles Malcolm Campbell
Untitled (Modernist Three-Panel Screen)
1948

About the Item

Untitled (Modernist Three-Panel Screen), 1948, mixed media on paperboard mounted into a three-section screen, 58 x 45 inches, signed and dated on each panel upper right This work is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s. Charles Malcolm Campbell (1905 - 1985) was an Ohio-born artist known for his highly individual modernist style which combined vibrant colors and unusual figure compositions. Campbell spent most of his childhood in Springfield, Ohio before moving with his family to Cleveland where he enrolled at the Cleveland Institute of Art. He was influenced by a variety of European artists from the Old Master El Greco to the social commentator Daumier and the avantgarde genius Picasso. Campbell received his art degree in 1928 after five years of training. After teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Art for a year, Campbell devoted his time to becoming a practicing artist. During the Great Depression, he worked on Federal public art projects, completing murals in Indiana, Ohio, and Texas. Campbell also entered easel paintings in major museum exhibitions during the 1930s, including at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 1942, Campbell married and relocated to Los Angeles, where he remained for the next roughly ten years. He was fortunate during this period to make a living selling his work through galleries mostly located in California. While in Los Angeles, Campbell painted the present work which combines a riotous, saturated palette with modernist figures that would have been at home in the light-filled Mid Century Modern houses that burst onto the Southern California architectural scene in the immediate post-war period. Campbell moved to New Orleans in 1952 and opened his own gallery. Subsequently, he relocated to Phoenix where he continued to receive the support of a small, but dedicated group of collectors. Campbell’s work is in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Cleveland Art Museum. He is listed in Who Was Who in American Art and all other standard references.

Creator:

Charles Malcolm Campbell (1905 - 1985, American)

Creation Year:

1948

Dimensions:

Height: 54 in (137.16 cm)Width: 48 in (121.92 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)

More Editions & Sizes:

54 x 48Price: $25,000

Medium:

Board

Movement & Style:

Cubist

Period:

1940-1949

Condition:

Gallery Location:

Los Angeles, CA

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU1859214244522

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Charles Campbell has been hailed as one of the more distinctive and imaginative contemporary American Painters of our time. In a highly individual style he combined rich vibrant colors with elaborate textures and composition. His paintings, described as modern by conservatives, and considered conservative by Avant-Garde groups, have their own unique balance of design. Charles was a quiet man who tended to make strong social statements in his paintings, some subtle, some obviously satirical, others full of fantasy and humor. A perfectionist, (he has destroyed over two-thirds of his work during his career), he painted every day until his eyes gave out and then often did some sculpting. His aim, he said, was to "Express my vision of the world in the purest possible terms." As a young man he drew inspiration from Daumier, particularly his outstanding draftsmanship. He also learned a great deal from Renoir in his handling of paint and tonal variations. El Greco's contribution is seen in the intensity and luminosity of many of Campbell's paintings, just as Picasso's line and description of the human form can be seen in others. Charles Campbell was born in Dayton, Ohio, but spent most of his boyhood in Springfield, Ohio. At 17 his family moved to Cleveland where he enrolled in the Cleveland School of Art (now the Cleveland Institute of Art), and spent five years there, receiving a B.A. degree in 1928. He taught one year at this school, but decided against the profession because he felt he had no calling for it. He was caught up in the 1930s Depression like thousands of his fellow artists and worked in WPA producing several murals. Following that he got a stake together and bummed about the country in a jalopy for a year, looking at the land and the people in the land during those very rough years in our history. He spent six months in an ancient house in Texas, painting, writing, doing a great deal of reading and thinking about what was going on, both in his own head and in the world. He returned to Cleveland and was taken on by the Treasury Art Project, producing easel paintings until 1942. At that time Campbell married and left for Los Angeles. Up until his departure from Cleveland, Campbell had established himself locally as an outstanding young painter, winning many prizes and awards. His early work was exhibited in the traveling shows in most of the major museums of the country. The Cleveland Museum and Whitney Museum own examples of his work of that period. After his move to Los Angeles, Campbell dropped out of the museum circuit and thereafter exhibited only in private galleries surviving wholly on the sale of his work.