"Ex Act"
John Covert
American, 1882–1960
1919
An oil on plywood and board in which John Covert fragments and overlaps curved geometric planes and stenciled lettering to fuse Cubist space with a wry, mechanical precision.
You are struck by a shallow, compressed field of cream, gray, green, and black wedges—knife‑edged, fan‑like forms and scraped brushwork converging around the stamped phrase “EX ACT,” giving the work a tactile, almost manufactured tension.
Made in 1919, the painting shows how American artists absorbed Cubist and Futurist ideas—using typography, collage‑like construction, and fragmentation—to push toward abstraction and conceptual play in early modernism.
Medium
Oil on plywood and board
Dimensions
25 x 27" (63.5 x 68.5 cm) including frame
Classification
Department
Credit
Katherine S. Dreier Bequest
Accession
147.1953
Palette
Exhibitions
