Upper Deck

Combining the reductive geometry of cubism with the crisply delineated and simplified forms of the ocean liner’s motors, ventilator stacks, and exhaust fans, Upper Deck is a quintessential work of the American precisionist movement. Indeed, this machine age–inspired painting streamlines even the heightened realism of Sheeler’s photograph that was its source. In the painting, the artist has stripped away every detail that would situate the scene in the working world, erasing the rivets, workers, steam, even the orientation of a horizon line. The resulting scene is uncannily devoid of human presence. Sheeler denied affiliation with either cubism or surrealism, and yet his realization that “a picture could have incorporated in it the structural design implied in abstraction and be presented in a wholly realistic manner” demonstrates the unavoidable influence of these artistic movements.