NILES SPENCER (1893-1952)
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Biography • Niles Spencer (1893-1952)
Niles Spencer was an early practitioner of Precisionism, a uniquely American style that took elements from Cubism, Italian Futurism, and photography to create compositions focused on the architectural structure underlying reality. Spencer was well suited to the Precisionist style that celebrated industry as his family owned Slater Mill, which under the ownership of Samuel Slater in 1793 had introduced a new water-powered technology to manufacturing that helped to launch America into the Industrial Revolution. The Spencer family prospered from manufacturing and Spencer’s humanistic handling of the subject may have resulted from growing up in this industrial milieu.
Born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1893, Spencer studied at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1913 to 1915. In New York City, he briefly studied at the Ferrer School with Robert Henri and George Bellows, and at the Art Students League with Kenneth Hayes Miller. Spencer traveled to Europe in 1921-22 and again in 1928-1929. His exposure to European cubism through the works of Cezanne, Braque and Gris undoubtedly influenced his painting.
Much of Spencer’s early work was based on the scenery of New England coastal towns. Spencer first visited the artist colony the summer of 1913. Spencer used his summer break from RISD in 1913 to study in Ogunquit, Maine with Charles Woodbury. Nearby the Perkins Cove Art Colony, founded by Hamilton Easter Field, painter, critic, and founder of The Arts magazine, included many of the progressive American artists of the day: Robert Laurent, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Katherine Schmidt, Lloyd Goodrich, Marsden Hartley, Walt Kuhn, Stefan Hirsch, and Bernard Karfiol. By 1915, Spencer had left the Woodbury circle and joined this progressive group, moving into a fishing shack-studio owned by Field in Ogunquit. From 1917 to 1921, Spencer spent most of his time in Ogunquit, Maine, traveling to New York in the winter for extended stays. With the death of Hamilton Easter Field in 1922, Spencer looked for another summer art colony that could match the progressive environment of Ogunquit. He spent the summer of 1923 in Woodstock then selected Provincetown for his summer trips from 1924 to 1930. Spencer’s early paintings of New England emphasized the underlying structure of objects and nature.
Throughout the 1920s, Spencer exhibited frequently, securing two one-man shows at the Daniel Gallery in 1925 and 1928, and he joined the Whitney Studio Club and the Whitney Studio Galleries, New York, where he showed until 1930. Spencer then had a solo exhibition at Edith Halpert’s Downtown Gallery in 1947.
From 1931 to 1941, Spencer used the industrial architecture of New York City and its surroundings as a subject. He painted factories, skyscrapers, warehouses and bridges with the same emphasis on geometric forms as in his earlier works. A commission from the Section of Fine Arts of the Treasury Department for a mural of industrial scenes for the Alquippa, PA Post Office was completed about 1937-38.
From 1943 through the rest of his life, Spencer’s work grew increasingly abstract and cubist. His colors remained muted and somber, while he continued to use carefully constructed color harmonies. Spencer’s work earned considerable recognition, and it was purchased by numerous prestigious institutions. In 1942 he received the Panama-Pacific award from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Niles Spencer died in Pennsylvania in 1952. A memorial exhibition was held at the Downtown Gallery in 1952. In 1954 Spencer had a multi-venue museum retrospective including the Museum of Modern Art. Another traveling museum exhibitions was held in 1965-1966 and the Whitney Museum of American Art held an exhibition in 1990.
Public collections include: Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; Museum of Modern Art, New York City; Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey; Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City.