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Property from The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Sold to Benefit the Acquisitions Fund Niles Spencer (1893-1952) Ordnance Island, Bermuda signed 'Niles Spencer-' (lower right) oil on canvas 24 x 36in (61 x 91.4cm) Painted in 1928. Fußnoten Provenance The artist. Samuel Adolph Lewisohn, New York, by 1930. Gift to the present owner from the above, 1938. Exhibited Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Institute, Twenty-Eighth Annual International Exhibition of Paintings, October 17-December 8, 1929, no. 19. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Painting and Sculpture by Living Americans: Ninth Loan Exhibition, December 3, 1930-January 20, 1931, p. 18, no. 82. Guggenheim Fellowship Jury, January 11, 1939. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, American Painting and Sculpture, 1862–1932, October 3, 1932-February 11, 1933, p. 39, no. 99. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, New Acquisitions, October 25-November 18, 1938. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, circulating exhibition, Twenty 20th Century Paintings, Autumn 1940-July 1941. Council for National Defense, for Inter-America House, November 25, 1941-April 14, 1942. New York, The Art Students' League, Niles Spencer 50 Years on 57th Street, February 7-March 14, 1943. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, circulating exhibition, European and American Paintings, September 1943-September 1944. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Paintings, Sculpture, and Graphic Arts from the Museum Collection, June 13-August 1, 1952. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Summer Exhibition: Kuniyoshi and Spencer, June 23–October 4, 1953. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Niles Spencer A Retrospective Exhibition, June 22-August 15, 1954. Amherst, Massachusetts, Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, 13 Painters 40 Years, May 1-31, 1956. Dallas, Texas, Dallas Museum for Contemporary Art, The World of Realism, January 8-March 2, 1958. New York, The Museum of Modern Art; Bonn and Berlin, Germany, international circulating exhibition, Art in Embassies, May 1960-June 1964. Lexington, Kentucky, University of Kentucky Art Gallery; Utica, New York, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute; Portland, Maine, Portland Museum; New York, Whitney Museum of American Art; Allentown, Pennsylvania, Allentown Art Museum; Manchester, New Hampshire, Currier Gallery of Art; Providence, Rhode Island, Rhode Island School of Design; East Hampton, New York, Guild Hall, Niles Spencer October 1965-August 1966, p. 32, catalogue no. 18, checklist no. 48. Ordnance Island, Bermuda exemplifies Niles Spencer's lifelong fascination with a modernized style of realism. The present work's highly-refined geometric aesthetic, muted tones, and the focus on simplification of form are hallmarks of the artist's strongest work and tie him to the group of American artists known as the Precisionists. Ordnance Island, Bermuda was painted during a two-month excursion Spencer took to Bermuda in the winter of 1927-28. His visit followed in the footsteps of other American painters, who during cold winter months at home found inspiration on Bermuda, where they enjoyed a pleasant climate and exotic subject matter. Niles Spencer was born, raised, and studied in Rhode Island. He trained both at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence and spent several summers in Ogunquit, Maine studying under Charles Woodbury (1864-1940). In 1916, he moved to New York where he briefly studied at the Art Students League and crucially was exposed to more avant-garde artistic influences, living in the epi-center of the American Modernist movement. Spencer was first introduced to European Cubist art when he traveled to Paris in 1921 and the work of Georges Braque (1882-1963), Juan Gris (1887-1927), and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) had a great impact on his artwork stylistically. American painters referred to as Precisionists, including Charles Demuth (1883-1935) and Charles Sheeler (1883-1965), were also influential. Spencer was a subtle and sophisticated colorist who selected, analyz