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Precisionism
Charles Sheeler, Windows, 1952
What is Precisionism?
“As the 1920s took shape, a group of North American painters responded to the expanding urban and industrial landscape around them with a style that combined the geometric scrutiny of Cubism with the exactness of photography. In Europe, the Futurists proclaimed the triumph of technology over nature, but in North America, the artists similarly inclined to glorify the industrialized modern world were not formally organized and had no manifesto to bind their beliefs. Precisionism, a term coined in 1927 by Alfred H. Barr, director of the Museum of Modern Art, came to define their sharp, clean, imposing aesthetic.”
Precisionism was the first real indigenous modern art movement in the United States and contributed to the rise of American Modernism. Taking its cues from Cubism and Futurism, Precisionism was driven by a desire to bring structure back to art and celebrated the new American landscape of skyscrapers, bridges, and factories. The Precisionists found inspiration in all forms of American architecture to establish the structure underlying reality they sought to depict. Precisionist artworks are characterized by their unexpected viewpoints and angles, sharp focus, and dynamic compositions. For a period, Georgia O’Keeffe painted in the Precisionist style, depicting imposing cityscapes during her time in New York; and Edward Hopper is another famous name associated with Precisionism.
Edward Hopper, Automat, 1927
Ralston Crawford, Overseas Highway, 1940
George Ault, Hoboken Factory, 1932
Charles Demuth, Chimney and Water Tower, 1931
Origins of Precisionism
Precisionism emerged after World War I and reached its peak during the 1920s and 1930s. The American architectural photographer Charles Sheeler was commissioned in 1927 to photograph the Ford Motor Company’s new industrial complex, which was built along the Rouge River in Dearborn, Michigan. Sheeler had traveled to Europe in the 1910s and had become familiar there with Cubism and other modernist developments.
Being both a photographer and a painter, after taking pictures of the Ford plant, he returned to the subject over and over in his painting in a series that combined Cubist motifs with elements associated with Futurism and Photorealism.
Sheeler’s sharp and accurate take on the modern world became known as Precisionism, and he was joined by like-minded contemporaries such as Charles Demuth.
The artists were inspired by Cubism’s fragmentation, the experimental use of lighting and framing in photography, Synchronism’s color harmony, and Futurism’s love of all things modern. Precisionism combined these influences in a crisp, clean style emphasizing geometric form and celebrating science and industry as important parts of the American culture.
As phrased in the Phaidon publication Art in Time: “As the 1920s took shape, a group of North American painters responded to the expanding urban and industrial landscape around them with a style that combined the geometric scrutiny of Cubism with the exactness of photography. In Europe, the Futurists proclaimed the triumph of technology over nature, but in North America, the artists similarly inclined to glorify the industrialized modern world were not formally organized and had no manifesto to bind their beliefs. Precisionism, a term coined in 1927 by Alfred H. Barr, director of the Museum of Modern Art, came to define their sharp, clean, imposing aesthetic.”
Georgia O’Keeffe, New York with Moon, 1925
