Precisionism was a modernist art movement that emerged in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. Influenced by

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

Purism Purism, referring to the arts, was a movement that took place between 1918 and 1925 that influenced French painting and architecture. Purism was led by Amédée Ozenfant and Charles Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier). Ozenfant and Le Corbusier f ...

, and

Futurism Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects suc ...

, 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

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ri ...

s, bridges, and factories in a form that has also been called "Cubist-Realism." The term "Precisionism" was first coined in the mid-1920s, possibly by

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

director Alfred H. Barr although according to

Amy Dempsey Amy Jo Dempsey FRSA (born 1963) is an independent scholar and art historian. Her book ''Styles, schools and movements'' (2002) has received two editions and has been translated into several languages. Early life Amy Dempsey was born in 1963. She ...

the term "Precisionism" was coined by

Charles Sheeler Charles Sheeler (July 16, 1883 – May 7, 1965) was an American artist known for his Precisionist paintings, commercial photography, and the avant-garde film, '' Manhatta'', which he made in collaboration with Paul Strand. Sheeler is recognized ...

. 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.

An American movement

While influenced by European modernist artistic movements like

, and

, Precisionism focused on the themes of

industrialization Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...

and modernization in the American landscape, using precise, sharply defined geometrical forms. Precisionist artists embraced their American identity and some were reluctant to acknowledge European artistic influences. There is a degree of reverence for the industrial age in the movement, but social commentary was not fundamental to the style. Like Pop Art, Precisionism has on occasion been interpreted as a criticism of the de-natured society it portrays, though its artists did not often feel comfortable with this reading of their work.

Elsie Driggs Elsie Driggs (1898 – July 12, 1992 in New York City) was an American painter known for her contributions to Precisionism, America's one indigenous modern-art movement before Abstract Expressionism, and for her later floral and figurative waterc ...

' ''Pittsburgh'' (1926) illustrates this gap in perception. A painting of black and gray steel-mill smokestacks, thick piping, and crisscrossing wires, with only clouds of smoke to relieve the severity of the image, viewers have been tempted to see this dark painting as a statement of environmental concern. To the contrary, Driggs always claimed that she intended an ironic beauty in the image and referred to it as "my

El Greco Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos ( el, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El ...

." Upon seeing the painting, Charles Daniel dubbed her "one of the new classicists." More often than not, Precisionism implicitly celebrated man-made dynamism and new technologies. Possible exceptions to this statement are some of the darker, more claustrophobic city paintings of

Louis Lozowick Louis Lozowick (1892 – 1973) (ukr: Луї Лозовик) was a Ukrainian-born American painter and printmaker. He is recognized as an Art Deco and Precisionist artist, and mainly produced streamline, urban-inspired monochromatic lithogr ...

and the comic anti-capitalist satires of

Preston Dickinson William Preston Dickinson (September 9, 1889 – November 25, 1930) was an American modern artist, best known for his paintings of industrial subjects in the Precisionist style. Biography William Preston Dickinson was born on September 9, 18 ...

. Varying degrees of abstraction are found in Precisionist works. '' The Figure 5 in Gold'' (1928) by

Charles Demuth Charles Henry Buckius Demuth (November 8, 1883 – October 23, 1935) was an American painter who specialized in watercolors and turned to oils late in his career, developing a style of painting known as Precisionism. "Search the history of Ame ...

, an homage to

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...

' imagist poem about a fire truck is abstract and stylized, while the paintings of

sometimes verge on a form of

photorealism Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Although the term can be ...

. (In addition to his meticulously detailed paintings like ''River Rouge Plant'' and ''American Landscape'', Sheeler, like his friend

Paul Strand Paul Strand (October 16, 1890 – March 31, 1976) was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century ...

, also created sharply focused photographs of factories and public buildings.) Some Precisionist work tended toward a "highly controlled approach to technique and form" as well as an application of " hard-edged style to long-familiar American scenes". Precisionist artists often focused on urban imagery: office towers, apartment houses, bridges, tunnels, subway platforms, streets, the skyline and grid of the modern city. Other artists, however, such as

Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Ame ...

, Charles Demuth, Niles Spencer,

Ralston Crawford Ralston Crawford (1906–1978) was an American abstract painter, lithographer, and photographer. Early life He was born on September 5, 1906, in St. Catharines, Ontario, and spent his childhood in Buffalo, New York. He studied art beginning in ...

, Sanford Ross, and Charles Sheeler, applied the same approach to more pastoral settings and painted starkly geometric renderings of barns, cottages, country roads, and farm houses. Stuart Davis and Gerald Murphy painted still life compositions in a Precisionist style.

Precisionists

American artists whose work has been labeled as reflective of Precisionism include:

George Ault __NOTOC__ George Copeland Ault (October 11, 1891 – December 30, 1948) was an American painter. He was loosely grouped with the Precisionist movement and, though influenced by Cubism and Surrealism, his most lasting work is of a realist nature. ...

Francis Criss Francis Hyman Criss (1901 - 1973) was an American painter. Criss's style is associated with the American Precisionists like Charles Demuth and his friend Charles Sheeler. Biography Criss was born in 1901 in London and immigrated with his family ...

, Stuart Davis,

, Gerald Murphy,

Niles Spencer Niles Spencer (16 May 1893 – 15 May 1952) was an American painter of the Precisionist School who specialized in depicting urban and industrial landscapes. His works are in the permanent collections of several major museums including the Metr ...

, Morton Schamberg and

Joseph Stella Joseph Stella (born Giuseppe Michele Stella, June 13, 1877 – November 5, 1946) was an Italian-born American Futurist painter best known for his depictions of industrial America, especially his images of the Brooklyn Bridge. He is also ...

Charles Rosen Charles Welles Rosen (May 5, 1927December 9, 2012) was an American pianist and writer on music. He is remembered for his career as a concert pianist, for his recordings, and for his many writings, notable among them the book ''The Classical Sty ...

, Dale Nichols,

Millard Sheets Millard Owen Sheets (June 24, 1907 – March 31, 1989) was an American artist, teacher, and architectural designer. He was one of the earliest of the California Scene Painting artists and helped define the art movement. Many of his large-scale bu ...

,The Hilbert Museum reveals treasures of California Scene Painting, Liz Goldner, February 24, 2016 KCET https://www.kcet.org/
/ref>

Virginia Berresford Virginia Berresford (1902, 1904 or 1914 – 1995) was a painter, printmaker, and art gallery owner. Her works are exhibited in major galleries. Early life and education She was born Virginia Berresford in either 1902, 1904 or 1914 (sources vary ...

Henry Billings Henry Billings (July 13, 1901 – October 1985) was an American artist. He was a painter, illustrator, muralist, and art instructor active in New York City. He was a grandson of John Shaw Billings, a surgeon and the first director of the New ...

Peter Blume Peter Blume (27 October 1906 – 30 November 1992) was an American painter and sculptor. His work contained elements of folk art, Precisionism, Parisian Purism, Cubism, and Surrealism. Biography Blume, born in Smarhon, Russian Empire to a J ...

Stefan Hirsch Stefan Hirsch (January 2, 1899 – September 28, 1964) was an American artist. Many of his paintings have the hard edges, smooth surfaces, and simplified forms of the precisionists and their typical subjects—cityscapes and industrial scenes� ...

, Edmund Lewandowski, John Storrs, Miklos Suba, Sandor Bernath,

Herman Trunk Herman Trunk (31 October 1894 – 16 August 1963), also known as Herman Trunk Jr., was an American painter active in the modernist movement of the 1920s and 1930s. He exhibited alongside some of the most famous artists of the day. At present ...

, Arnold Wiltz, Clarence Holbrook Carter, Edgar Corbridge and the photographers

and

Lewis Hine Lewis Wickes Hine (September 26, 1874 – November 3, 1940) was an American sociologist and muckraker photographer. His photographs were instrumental in bringing about the passage of the first child labor laws in the United States. Early life ...

. The movement had no major presence outside the United States, although it did influence

Australian art Australian art is any art made in or about Australia, or by Australians overseas, from prehistoric times to the present. This includes Aboriginal, Colonial, Landscape, Atelier, early-twentieth-century painters, print makers, photographers, ...

where

Jeffrey Smart Frank Jeffrey Edson Smart (26 July 1921 – 20 June 2013) was an expatriate Australian painter known for his precisionist depictions of urban landscapes that are "full of private jokes and playful allusions". Smart was born and educated i ...

adopted its principles. Although no manifesto was ever created, some of the artists were friends and frequently exhibited at the same galleries.

's husband, photographer and art dealer

Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was kno ...

, 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

, 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 The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formed in 1878 as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (its name until 1978), it was the first art museum to register its charter with the state of Ohio. The museum collect ...

. File:Head Woodcut 1920.jpg, John Storrs, ''Profile Head with Cap'', c. 1918, woodcut on paper

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds ...

File:Joseph Stella, 1919-20, Brooklyn Bridge, oil on canvas, 215.3 x 194.6 cm, Yale University Art Gallery.jpg,

, ''Brooklyn Bridge,'' 1919–1920,

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

Image:Davis_Stuart_Lucky_Strike_1921.jpg, Stuart Davis, ''Lucky Strike,'' 1921, oil on canvas,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Image:Davis steeple street.jpg, Stuart Davis, ''Steeple and Street'', 1922,

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was desig ...

Washington, DC. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

Image:Demuth_Charles_Incense of a New Church, 1921.jpg,

, ''Incense of a New Church'' (1921) Image:Charles_Demuth_-_My_Egypt.jpg, Charles Demuth, ''

My Egypt ''My Egypt'' is a 1927 painting by the American artist Charles Demuth. It depicts a grain elevator from the artist's hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and is considered a "masterpiece" and "emblem" of the Precisionist art movement. Backgroun ...

'', oil on composition board, 1927,

Whitney Museum The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

Image:Demuth_Charles_Chimney_and_Watertower_1931.jpg, Charles Demuth, ''Chimney and Watertower,'' oil on composition board, 1931,

Amon Carter Museum Amon may refer to: Mythology * Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra * Aamon, a Goetic demon People Momonym * Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah Given name * Amon G. Carter (1879–1955), American pub ...

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the List of cities in Texas by population, fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the List of United States cities by population, 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, T ...

File:Skyscrapers_Sheeler_1922.jpg,

, ''Skyscrapers'' (1922) File:Sidewheel_in_the_Rondout.jpg,

, ''Sidewheel in the Rondout''

References

Sources

* 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. * 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. * Stavitsky, Gail. ''Precisionism in America, 1915–1941: Reordering Reality''. New York: Abrams, 1994. * Tsujimoto, K. ''Images of America: Precisionist Painting and Modern Photography''. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982.

External links