biography of Niles SPENCER (1893-1952)

Birth place: Pawtucket, RI

Death place: Dingman's Ferry, PA

Addresses: NYC/Provincetown, MA

Profession: Painter

Studied: Woodbury lectures, RISD, 1913; Chas.H. Woodbury, Ogunquit School, 1913; Hamilton Easter Field School, Ogunquit, 1915; ASL with Geo. Bellows and R. Henri, 1916; in France and Italy, 1921-22

Exhibited: S. Indp. A., 1922; Salons of Am., 1922, 1932, 1936; WMAA,1922-50, 1965-66 (retrospective); CI, Pittsburgh, 1930 (prize); Corcoran Gal. biennials, 1932-51 (7 times); PAFA Ann., 1933-51; MoMA; AIC; Detroit IA; Univ. Kentucky (retrospective); Munson-Williams-Proctor Inst. (retrospective); Portland (ME) Mus. Art (retrospective); Allentown AM (retrospective); Currier Gal. Art (retrospective); RISD; Ogunquit Mus. Am. Art.

Member: An Am. Group; Woodstock AA

Work: Albright Art Gal.; PMG; WMAA; MoMA; MMA; Field Fnd.; Ann Arbor AA; Wichita MA; Providence MA; Columbus Gal. FA; Columbus (OH) MFA; Northern Trust Co., Chicago; WPA mural, USPO, Aliquippa, PA.

Comments: For most of his career, Spencer worked in a precisionist style, choosing interiors, still lifes, urban views, and farm scenes as his subject matter during the 1920s, and concentrating on industrial themes in the 1930s. Spencer's work became more abstract during the 1940s and he gradually eliminated almost all spatial references. Painted also in Bermuda (1927, 1928, 1931).

Sources: WW47; Baigell, Dictionary; Charles Woodbury and His Students; Falk, Exh. Record Series; add'l info. courtesy Woodstock AA.