Carl Newman, born Philadelphia, PA - Group of Abstract Nudes - unknown - T-Shirt

This graphite pencil sheet breaks a standing female nude into sharp, interlocking planes, then repeats the figure across a grid of framed panels.

Visual Elements & Composition

Cream paper dominates the sheet, with grey and near-black graphite carrying the drawing. A larger rectangle sits at the centre, holding the most fully developed figure: head, torso and hips split into faceted angles. Smaller panels in the margins show further figures, some seated or reclining, others standing, alongside compositions of intersecting shapes. Hatched shading and hard, broken contours give the whole sheet a precise, austere texture. A small numeral, 385601, appears on the page.

Meaning & Symbolism

The sheet belongs to Carl Newman's figure studies, made by an artist born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its early twentieth-century modernism rests on a single question: how far can a body be simplified before it stops reading as a body? The repeated figure answers that by keeping pose and mass legible while the surface turns into geometry. The grid reads as a working page, where the same subject was drawn again and again in separate frames, each one pushing the form further toward structure.

Wearing the Artwork

A tee carries the design across the chest and back, so the grid of panels reads as one composition rather than a single figure seen up close. The central rectangle becomes the focal point, with the margin studies building around it. The angular figures are drawn to be seen at a glance, and the simplified forms hold their shape when worn in motion.