Precisionism was amodernistart movement that emerged in theUnited States afterWorld War I. Influenced byCubism,Purism, andFuturism, 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 ofskyscrapers, bridges, and factories in a form that has also been called "Cubist-Realism."[1] The term "Precisionism" was first coined in the mid-1920s, possibly byMuseum of Modern Art director Alfred H. Barr[2] although according toAmy Dempsey the term "Precisionism" was coined byCharles Sheeler.[3] Painters working in this style were also known as the "Immaculates", which was the more commonly used term at the time.[4] The stiffness of both art-historical labels suggests the difficulties contemporary critics had in attempting to characterize these artists.
While influenced by European modernist artistic movements likeCubism,Purism, andFuturism, Precisionism focused on the themes ofindustrialization and modernization in the American landscape, using precise, sharply definedgeometrical forms. Precisionist artists embraced their American identity and some were reluctant to acknowledge European artistic influences.[5]
There is a degree of reverence for the industrial age in the movement, but social commentary was not fundamental to the style. LikePop 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'Pittsburgh (1926) illustrates this gap in perception.[6] 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 "myEl Greco." Upon seeing the painting, Charles Daniel dubbed her "one of the new classicists."[7] 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 ofLouis Lozowick and the comic anti-capitalist satires ofPreston Dickinson.
Varying degrees of abstraction are found in Precisionist works.The Figure 5 in Gold (1928) byCharles Demuth, an homage toWilliam Carlos Williams' imagist poem about a fire truck is abstract and stylized, while the paintings ofCharles Sheeler sometimes verge on a form ofphotorealism. (In addition to his meticulously detailed paintings likeRiver Rouge Plant andAmerican Landscape, Sheeler, like his friendPaul Strand, also created sharply focused photographs of factories and public buildings.[8]) Some Precisionist works tended toward a "highly controlled approach to technique and form" as well as an application of "hard-edged style to long-familiar American scenes".[9]
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 asGeorgia O'Keeffe, Charles Demuth, Niles Spencer,Ralston Crawford,Sanford Ross, andCharles Sheeler, applied the same approach to more pastoral settings and painted starkly geometric renderings of barns, cottages, country roads, and farm houses.Stuart Davis andGerald Murphy painted still life compositions in a Precisionist style.
American artists whose work has been labeled as reflective of Precisionism include:Anna Held Audette,[10]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,[11]Charles Rosen,Dale Nichols,Millard Sheets,[12]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 photographersPaul Strand andLewis Hine. The movement had no major presence outside the United States, although it did influenceAustralian art whereJeffrey Smart adopted its principles.[citation needed] 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 dealerAlfred Stieglitz, was a highly regarded mentor for the group and was especially supportive of Paul Strand.[citation needed]
Precisionism had an indirect influence on the later styles known asmagic realism,pop art, andphotorealism, 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.[citation needed]
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