Precisionism

, Aucassin and Nicolette, oil on canvas, 1921 Precisionism was a modernist art movement that emerged in the United States after World War I. Influenced by Cubism, Purism, and Futurism, Precisionist artists reduced subjects to their essential geometric shapes, eliminated detail, and often used planes of light to create a sense of crisp focus and suggest the sleekness and sheen of machine forms. At the height of its popularity during the 1920s and early 1930s, Precisionism celebrated the new American landscape of skyscrapers, bridges, and factories in a form that has also been called "Cubist-Realism." The term "Precisionism" was coined in the mid-1920s, possibly by Museum of Modern Art director Alfred H. Barr although according to Amy Dempsey the term "Precisionism" was coined by Charles Sheeler. Painters working in this style were also known as the "Immaculates", which was the more commonly used term at the time. The stiffness of both art-historical labels suggests the difficulties contemporary critics had in attempting to characterize these artists.

, Aucassin and Nicolette, oil on canvas, 1921 Precisionism was a modernist art movement that emerged in the United States after World War I. Influenced by Cubism, Purism, and Futurism, Precisionist artists reduced subjects to their essential geometric shapes, eliminated detail, and often used planes of light to create a sense of crisp focus and suggest the sleekness and sheen of machine forms. At the height of its popularity during the 1920s and early 1930s, Precisionism celebrated the new American landscape of skyscrapers, bridges, and factories in a form that has also been called "Cubist-Realism." The term "Precisionism" was coined in the mid-1920s, possibly by Museum of Modern Art director Alfred H. Barr although according to Amy Dempsey the term "Precisionism" was coined by Charles Sheeler. Painters working in this style were also known as the "Immaculates", which was the more commonly used term at the time. The stiffness of both art-historical labels suggests the difficulties contemporary critics had in attempting to characterize these artists. ==Precisionists== , Wall Street, 1915 American artists whose work has been labeled as reflective of Precisionism include: Anna Held Audette, George Ault, Ralston Crawford, Francis Criss, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Georgia O'Keeffe, Preston Dickinson, Elsie Driggs, Louis Lozowick, Gerald Murphy, Charles Sheeler, Niles Spencer, Morton Schamberg, Joseph Stella, Charles Rosen, Dale Nichols, Millard Sheets, Edward Hopper, Virginia Berresford, Henry Billings, Peter Blume, Stefan Hirsch, Edmund Lewandowski, John Storrs, Miklos Suba, Sandor Bernath, Herman Trunk, Arnold Wiltz, Clarence Holbrook Carter, Edgar Corbridge and the photographers Paul Strand and Lewis Hine. The movement had no major presence outside the United States, although it did influence Australian art where Jeffrey Smart adopted its principles. Although no manifesto was ever created, some of the artists were friends and frequently exhibited at the same galleries. Georgia O'Keeffe's husband, photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz, was a highly regarded mentor for the group and was especially supportive of Paul Strand. Precisionism had an indirect influence on the later styles known as magic realism, pop art, and photorealism, but it was largely considered a dated "period style" by the 1950s, though its influence on advertising imagery and stage and set design continued throughout the twentieth century. Its two most famous practitioners are Charles Demuth and Charles Sheeler. ==Gallery== File:Morton Livingston Schamberg - Telephone (1916).jpg|Morton Schamberg, Telephone, 1916, oil on canvas, Columbus Museum of Art File:Head Woodcut 1920.jpg|John Storrs, Head, c. 1920, woodcut on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum File:Joseph Stella, 1919-20, Brooklyn Bridge, oil on canvas, 215.3 x 194.6 cm, Yale University Art Gallery.jpg|Joseph Stella, Brooklyn Bridge, 1919–1920, Yale University Art Gallery Image:Davis_Stuart_Lucky_Strike_1921.jpg|Stuart Davis, Lucky Strike, 1921, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York City Image:Davis steeple street.jpg|Stuart Davis, Steeple and Street, 1922, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. Image:Demuth_Charles_Incense of a New Church, 1921.jpg|Charles Demuth, Incense of a New Church (1921) Image:Charles_Demuth_-_My_Egypt.jpg|Charles Demuth, My Egypt, oil on composition board, 1927, Whitney Museum Image:Demuth_Charles_Chimney_and_Watertower_1931.jpg|Charles Demuth, Chimney and Watertower, oil on composition board, 1931, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas File:Skyscrapers_Sheeler_1922.jpg|Charles Sheeler, Skyscrapers, 1922 File:Sidewheel_in_the_Rondout.jpg|Charles Rosen, Sidewheel in the Rondout ==References== ==Bibliography== Acker, Emma; Canterbury, Sue; Daub, Adrian; and Palmor, Lauren. Cult of the Machine: Precisionism and American Art. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018. Barry, Claire and Fahlman, Betsy. Chimneys and Towers: Charles Demuth's Late Paintings of Lancaster. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. Friedman, Martin L. The Precisionist View in American Art. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1960. Harnsberger, R.S. Ten Precisionist Artists: Annotated Bibliographies. Art Reference Collection no. 14. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992. Hemingway, Andrew The Mysticism of Money: Precisionist Painting and Machine Age America. Pittsburgh & New York: Periscope Publishing, 2013 Hughes, Robert. American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America. New York; Knopf, 1994. Kimmerle, Constance. Elsie Driggs: The Quick and the Classical. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. Lazevnick, Ashley. Fantasies of Precision: American Modern Art, 1908-1947. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2023. Martin, Michael (ed.). Edmund Lewandowski: Precisionism and Beyond. Flint, MI: Flint Institute of Arts, 2010. Rawlinson, Mark. Charles Sheeler: Modernism, Precisionism and the Borders of Abstraction. Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, UK: Routledge, 2025. Stavitsky, Gail. Precisionism in America, 1915–1941: Reordering Reality. New York: Abrams, 1994. Tsujimoto, Karen. Images of America: Precisionist Painting and Modern Photography. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982. Ward, Meredith. Streamlined: The Precisionist Impulse in American Art. New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 1995. ==Further reading== Kramer, Hilton, 1982, "Precisionism Revised" in Revenge of the Philistines, Art & Culture 1972–1984. Free Press, September 12, 2007, ==External links== "Precisionism" in Artcyclopedia Precisionism at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Precisionists—Consummate Anti-Expressionists

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