I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold, by Charles Demuth, was an exuberant response to a poem by William Carlos Williams, who was trying to establish an American modernism.

Williams had dedicated Spring and All to the artist in 1923. The volume presented an authoritative version of the voice he sought to achieve. At the time, both men were trying to establish a new iconography, as expressed in the poem “The Great Figure”.

The work is one of nine poster portraits Demuth created to honor his creative friends.  He painted posters devoted to artists Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, Charles Duncan, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and other writers than Williams.

Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumblings
through the dark city~William Carlos Williams

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